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Eddie Collins

Second Base
  • Series: Pilgrims
  • City: Philadelphia
  • Team: Athletics (AL)
  • League: American League
  • Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame

Edward Trowbridge Collins Sr. (1887-1951) was sold by Connie Mack to the White Sox in 1915 for the amazing sum of $50,000. His salary put him behind only Cobb and Speaker. He left the “$100,000 infield” of the Athletics for what would become the most notorious team in MLB history. He never believed the rumored “fix” for the Sox in 1919 and survived the scandal to lead the team in its aftermath.

  • Only man to play for 2 teams for at least 12 yrs each
  • Spent 15 yrs as GM for the Red Sox under his friend Tom Yawkey
  • Elected to Hall of Fame: 1939

Auction History

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T201 Mecca Canvas: Eddie Collins

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

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

Cartophilia

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

Donie Bush

Shortstop
  • Series: Pilgrims
  • City: Detroit
  • Team: Tigers
  • League: American League

Owen Joseph Bush (1887-1972) played in the Deadball Era instead of the Moneyball Era, hence he isn’t held in the esteem his record would enjoy today. The diminutive SS wrote the book on small ball, a keen eye enabling him to lead the league in walks five times. He hit .250 but was so adept at getting on base he was at or near the top in runs scored. Legends grow around the sluggers who drive in the runs, but Donie was out there for Cobb, Crawford and Heilmann to pick up. Equally proficient at short, Bush had a lifetime .937 fielding % and still owns the record for 425 putouts in 1914. In addition, his speed produced over 400 stolen bases.

  • “Donie” was a misprint for his real nickname, Ownie, but it stuck
  • Clark Griffith recognized managerial talent and hired Bush for the ’23 season. Bush then had the “thrill” of taking the Pirates to the ’27 Series against the Yankee bombers and being swept
  • Bush continued in baseball, compiling a 65-year career and was beloved in his home Indianapolis

Auction History

Cartophilia

T201 Mecca Canvas: John McLean