Lot 520. Rare Civil War Newspaper with a Report on N.Y. Knickerbockers Base Ball. New York Daily Tribune from July 16, 1862 reports that the Knickerbockers defeated the Victory Club of Troy, N.Y., at Albany, 74-35. The brief article says that “The batting was of the most extra- ordinary character, and the fielding, under the circumstances, splendid.” Complete eight-page newspaper with the report on page 7. Ex.
Winning Bid $68.
Lot 521. 1865 Harper’s with the Brooklyn Atlantics Championship Team. The Atlantics were instrumental in the evolution of baseball from an amateur to professional sport and the development of the New York-Brooklyn rivalry. In the 1860s, teams from New York and Brooklyn met to determine a champion. Through 1866, the Atlantics won every championship, except in 1862 and 1863. This team participated in the first inter-city tournament attended by a U.S. President. In 1865, the Atlantics and Athletics competed against the Washington Nationals in the nation’s capital. President Andrew Johnson attended. This litho, titled “Champion Nine’ of the Atlantic Base-Ball Club of Brooklyn, L.I., 1865,” is about 10 ½” x 15 ½” and shows nine team members. With only a couple of minor wrinkles, it is one of the nicest Harper’s pages we have seen.
Winning Bid $102.
Lot 522. 1883 Harper’s Litho Featuring the N.L. Champion Boston Beaneaters. The Boston team occupies the top one-third of a full page from the Oct. 13 issue. Beautifully matted and framed and seemingly free of creases, this page hung in the MCI National Sports Gallery at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C.
Winning Bid $75.
Lot 523. Aug. 22, 1885 Harper’s Weekly Full Issue with a Woodcut of Kelly, Ewing. Titled “The Winning Run - How Is It, Umpire’,” the lithograph features a Chicago White Stockings catcher who almost is certainly King Kelly and a runner who appears to be Buck Ewing or possibly John Ward. Full page, ex-m, in an ex issue. Corners of the last two pages, which do not include the baseball scene, are restored.
Winning Bid $75.
Lot 525. 1866 Leslie’s Woodcut with Officials of the National Association of Base Ball Players. Complete issue with top officials of the organization on the cover. Founded in 1857 by New York area teams, it was first organization to govern baseball and the first to establish a championship. After the Civil War, it expanded well beyond New York. The officials pictured are John Wildey, president, Mortimer Rogers, first vice president, H. C. Sexton, second vice president, A. H. Rogers, secretary, and P. J. Cozans, treasurer. An early star and an entrepreneur, Rogers played for Brooklyn and Lowell teams, started a newspaper devoted to baseball and sold scorecards. Early vg issue.
Winning Bid $138.
Lot 529. 1869 Magazine with Baseball Pictured on the Cover and Baseball Content. The cover of the June 5 Oliver Optics Magazine: Our Boys and Girls shows a boy batting against a scene of a game in progress. Inside, baseball is already designated “Our National Game.” An article covers the Brooklyn Atlantics, the Philadelphia Keystones and the Cincinnati team. Vg.
Minimum Bid $50.
Lot 530. Woodcut of the First World Series - 1884, Providence vs. New York, from the Nov. 8 Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic Journal. Playing in New York, the N.L. Grays swept the American Association Metropolitans in three games. Old Hoss Radbourn won all three games. The full-page litho shows game action in the central drawing and in two insets. Edge chips, vertical fold, clean image with an ex appearance.
Winning Bid $61.
