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Ty Cobb

Outfield
  • Series: Pilgrims
  • City: Detroit
  • Team: Tigers
  • League: American League
  • Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame

Tyrus Raymond Cobb (1886-1961) swept over the baseball landscape like a tidal wave. He lived by a fierce code that drove him to greatness and others to distraction. At the end, his own words could be his epitaph: “But I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch.”

  • Cobb never won a World Series and performed with mediocrity in his only three tries
  • No one of his era came close to the impact, for good or ill, made by this snarling Tiger
  • Elected to Hall of Fame: 1936

Auction History

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T201 Mecca Canvas: Ty Cobb

Fred Clarke

Outfield
  • Series: Pilgrims
  • City: Pittsburgh
  • Team: Pirates
  • League: National League
  • Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame

Fred Clifford Clarke (1872-1960) broke into MLB in a big way, going 5 for 5 in his 1st game (never bettered.) This Hall-of-Famer starred with the Pirates along with Honus Wagner and Vic Willis, winning 4 of the 9 titles held by the Pittsburgh franchise. Was player-mgr most of his career.

  • Hit over .300 eleven times, his .390 in ’97 was bested only by Wee Willie Keeler
  • Honored at Cooperstown as the “first of the successful ‘boy managers’” at age 24
  • Elected to Hall of Fame: 1945

Auction History

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T201 Mecca Canvas: Fred Clarke

Ed Cicotte

Pitcher
  • Series: Pilgrims
  • City: Boston
  • Team: Red Sox
  • League: American League

Edward Victor “Knuckles” Cicotte (1884-1969) won 208 games and a World Series with the White Sox in 1917. The Sporting News said in 1918 that “Perhaps no pitcher in the world has such a varied assortment of wares….” But it was Eddie’s first pitch of the 1919 Series that plunked Morrie Rath in the back and signaled the fix was in. No one was ever convicted of the infamous Black Sox scandal but Cicotte, with seven teammates, never played ML ball after his tearful confession following the ’20 season.

  • Cicotte, Shoeless Joe, and other banned Sox players went on to barnstorm under false names
  • His mastery of the knuckleball led to a transformation of his career. His control improved to the point of walking only 89 in 572 innings in 1918/19 combined.

Auction History

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T201 Mecca Canvas: Ed Cicotte

Hal Chase

First Base
  • Series: Pilgrims
  • City: New York
  • Team: Highlanders
  • League: American League

Harold Homer Chase (1883-1947) may have been among the best first-basemen ever, but his “errors” place him as mediocre at best. His own words are his epitaph: “I am an outcast, and I haven’t a good name. I’m the loser, just like all gamblers are.” A star for the NY Highlanders for the first nine years of the franchise, admired by peers such as Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson, Chase even went on to out-poll dozens of later entrants into the Hall of Fame. Such was his prowess at first and plate. But his compulsion to wager, and the ease of access to illicit betting (the bookies were in the front row) consigned this great player to ignominy.

  • Chase’s spiral from NY idol to deportee from Mexico evidenced his inability to stay straight in an era when the crooked path was wide and inviting
  • Chase was banned from baseball for life by commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis in 1922 for his (unsubstantiated) role in the 1919 Black Sox scandal
  • Despite the controversy that consumed his career, Chase received more HOF votes in 1936 than 18 future HOFers, and more votes in 1937 than 32 future HOFers, but he never appeared on the ballot again

Auction History

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T201 Mecca Canvas: Hal Chase

Frank Chance

First Base
  • Series: Pilgrims
  • City: Chicago
  • Team: Cubs
  • League: National League
  • Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame

Frank Leroy Chance (1876-1924) was a tenacious and fiercely competitive MLB player-manager for the Cubs and Yankees and manager of the Red Sox. John L. Sullivan called him the “greatest amateur brawler of all time.” Chance brought that pugilistic spirit to the diamond, giving unruly fans and players as good as he got.

  • Joined the fraternity of the immortals in Cooperstown with the teammates with whom he is forever linked: Johnny Evers and Joe Tinker
  • Cubs’ owner gave Chance a 10% stake in the club as reward for stealing home from 2nd in a tied game
  • Elected to Hall of Fame: 1946

Auction History

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T201 Mecca Canvas: Frank Chance