A rare 1930 Chicago Cubs uniform worn by batter Hack Wilson is set to make in excess of $400,000 at Goldin Auctions.
Wilson was a short and stocky player who nevertheless achieved a spectacular batting average. At 191, he retains the season record for runs batted in (RBI) to this day.
Hack Wilson was a phenomenally powerful hitter
Wilson had a reputation as a drinker and a scrapper, regularly getting into fights on and off the field.
In 1928, he launched himself into the stands and started beating a spectator who’d been heckling him.
Sports journalist Shirley Povich once quipped that Wilson was “built along the lines of a beer keg, and was not wholly unfamiliar with its contents."
However, when he was on form he was unstoppable, and 1930 was his best season.
His performance clinched him the Most Useful Player award (the original incarnation of Most Valuable Player).
Goldin describes it as “arguably the greatest individual season of all-time”.
While the majority of lots in the July 27 sale are sporting related, there are a couple of anomalies – such as Amelia Earhart’s signed certificate of landing for her first non-stop Atlantic solo flight in 1932.
She was the first woman (and the second person after Charles Lindbergh) to complete this gruelling route.
While she’d intended to land in Paris, storms forced her off course to a field on the outskirts of Culmore, Northern Ireland.
The certificate is expected to make around $75,000.
We have a genuine signed piece of Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St Louis for sale.
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