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Lot # 620: 1929 Johnny Evers Signature (PSA)

Starting Bid: $200.00

Bids: 22 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "2023 Fall Classic",
which ran from 10/29/2023 7:00 PM to
11/18/2023 10:00 PM



Presented is a 1929 Johnny Evers business sized card, signed and inscribed, in ink, all in Evers' own hand. Evers was a Hall of Fame second baseman who essentially played in the Major Leagues from 1902-17: Chicago Cubs (1902-13), Boston Braves (1914-17), and Philadelphia Phillies (1917). As a coach, he played one game as an active player in 1922 for the Chicago White Sox and one game in 1929 for the Boston Braves. He was on three World Championship teams and was the National League MVP when playing for the "Miracle Braves." Evers was involved in one of the most famous situations in baseball history when his Chicago Cubs were playing against the New York Giants on June 12, 1908, at the Polo Grounds in New York. On an apparent game winning hit by the Giants in the bottom of the 9th inning, the Giants' Fred Merkle, who was on first base, failed to touch second base as he followed the custom of players running off the field at the end of a game to avoid the crowd, which normally entered the field to exit the stadium from the outfield. Evers noticed Merkle's technical mistake, forever after called "Merkle's Boner," and Evers somehow produced a baseball and tagged second base, arguing for a force out. National League President Harry Pulliam later declared the game a tie, and the Giants lost a subsequent one-game playoff for the pennant. The Cubs then beat the Detroit Tigers to win the World Series. Evers was also a part of baseball's most famous double play combination, immortalized in a poem, eventually called "Baseball's Sad Lexicon," in a column in the New York Evening Mail, by Franklin Pierce Adams. The key lines of the poem read, "These are the saddest of possible words. 'Tinker to Evers to Chance.'" Since Johnny Evers passed away in 1947, his autograph is a tough signature to obtain. The 3.5x5.5" business-sized card reads, "Mar. 1, 29 [at the top] Gerard [?] Johnny Evers/Boston Braves [at the bottom]." Evers hit .270 lifetime and was a Major League coach, manager, and scout, but he is mainly remembered for the "Tinker to Evers to Chance" reference and for his role in the game involving Fred Merkle's baserunning mistake. The signed and inscribed card has been encapsulated and PSA/DNA certified as AUTHENTIC AUTO.

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