SIGNED BY 43 NEGRO LEAGUE PLAYERS, INCLUDING HALL OF FAMERS BUCK LEONARD, MONTE IRVIN AND LEON DAY
(BASEBALL). Negro League Autograph Sheet signed. Baltimore, October 13, 1990. One sheet, measuring 11 by 17 inches, printed and signed on the recto. Floated, matted and framed, entire piece measures 16 by 22 inches. $6500.
"Autograph sheet" from the Negro League Baseball Players Association reunion in Baltimore in 1990, #317 of 500, signed by 43 Negro League players, including Hall of Famers Leon Day, Monte Irvin and Buck Leonard.
The Negro Leagues developed after the Civil War due to a "gentleman's agreement" among MLB higher-ups to keep Black players out of the league. After a long period without an organized circuit, Andrew "Rube" Foster founded the Negro National League (NNL) in 1920. The Negro leagues thrived in the 1920s and then again after the Great Depression, but popularity began to wane in the late 1940s when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the MLB by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers and other star Black players started to shift over to the MLB.
This autograph sheet is signed by many of the biggest names to play in the Negro leagues. Hall of Famer Monte Irvin was one of the first Black players to break the color line, joining the Giants in 1949. Buck Leonard played for the dynastic Homestead Grays from 1934 to 1950, a team that won nine straight pennants and three Negro World Series titles. In 1999, Sporting News ranked him number 47 on its list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. Hall of Famer Leon Day played most of his career with the Newark Eagles; as a pitcher, he was consider the equal of, if not better than, his more famous contemporary, Satchel Paige. Signed by 43 players: Double Duty Radcliffe (twice), Cowan "Bubba" Hyde, Marlin Carter, Josh Johnson, Frank Evans (twice), "Piper" Davis, Harry Barnes, Bob Harvey, Wilmer Fields, Col. Jimmie Crutchfield, Willie (Pat) Patterson, Mahlon Duckett, Elmer Knox, Jake Sanders, Wiley R. Griggs, Armando Vazquez, Josh Gibson, Jr., Gene Benson, Joe Moses, Al Spearman, Gready McKinnis, John "Mule" Miles, Lester Lockett, George Giles, Claro Duany, Garnett E. Blair, Lyman Bostock Sr., Willie Pope, Leon Day, Monte Irvin, Verdell Mathis, Quincy Trouppe, Stanley Glenn, Bob Thurman, Jehosie Heard, Freddie Shepard, Rodolfo Fernandez, Larry Kimbrough, Thomas Sampson, Max Manning, Bill Byrd, Nap Gulley, and Buck Leonard.
Autograph sheet about-fine, handsomely framed.