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Pittsburgh Pirates
12 Lots
 Lot 225. UPDATE: Quality, Rare ORIGINAL Pirates 1925 N.L. Champs Poster from the Pittsburgh Gazette Times. These Pirates went on to become World Champions as well. We’ve seen only three of these 19” x 28” posters in more than 30 years, and this is the finest of the three – by far! The paper remains white to slightly off-white, and the red and black colors used in printing the poster are bold and bright. Close up, the poster shows some creases at the top and bottom and some light foxing toward the bottom. The central image area is free of any noticeable defects even at close range. The poster is matted and framed to about 24 ½” x 33 ½”. Pittsburgh defeated Washington in a seven-game World Series. The poster, which was distributed to news stands, encourages readers to follow the Series in the Gazette Times, with special reports from Damon Runyon, Ring Lardner, Max Carey, the Pirates’ captain, John McGraw, Muddy Ruel and others. Near the center of the poster, Barney Dreyfuss, the Pirates’ president, is pictured with Carey and Bill McKechnie, the manager. Twenty-five other Pirates are pictured, including Pie Traynor and Kiki Cuyler. Carey was the series batting star, and this poster is likely to become a star of the winning bidder’s collection. A NOTE ABOUT AUTHENTICITY: We have had a couple of calls from customers pointing out that this poster was re-printed, apparently about 1980. This example, which was sold some years ago by Hunt Auctions, is printed on early coated paper stock. The re-prints are on paper stock similar to stock used for cards, and they are somewhat smaller than this original. Furthermore, this example is accompanied by the original GAZETTE TIMES mailing tube, which we failed to mention in our description earlier.
Winning Bid $433.
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 Lot 226. 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates World Series Press Charm. Pittsburgh, or course, won this game in the most dramatic fashion on Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off home run. The charm has the same design as the pin, which was produced by Josten. The Pirates mascot is displayed within a white baseball diamond that says “World Series 1960” in gold. A banner below says “Pirates” in gold on black. The pin is nm to nm-m with what appears to be a tiny, very minor production defect on the “9.” These charms are much less common than the pins and display just as nicely.
Winning Bid $92.
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 Lot 227. 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates Near Set: Myron Cope’s “The MAN in the Pirate Uniform.” This uncataloged series of 14 player profiles and accompanying artwork and photos appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in August 1960. Myron Cope, better known as the Pittsburgh Steelers broadcaster who invented the Terrible Towel, wrote the profiles. Cope was an accomplished journalist who wrote for Sports Illustrated and authored several books. Twelve of the 14 profiles are present. The subjects are: #1 Don Hoak, 2 Smoky Burgess, 3 Rocky Nelson, 4 Bob Friend, 5 Gino Cimoli, 6 Vernon Law, 7 Hal Smith, 8 Harvey Haddix, 10 Dick Groat, 12 Bob Skinner, 13 Roberto Clemente and 14 “The ‘Quiet Men’ of the Pirates” – Bill Mazeroski, Bill Virdon and Roy Face. The profiles are on the first page of the Post-Gazette’s “Daily Magazine” section. They occupy five central columns of the page. Four issues have two profiles. With one exception, in which the left column has been removed, the full page is present. All of the pages are folded once vertically and once horizontally. They show average aging and use. It appears that very few of these profiles have been saved for posterity.
Winning Bid $538.
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 Lot 228. Very Scarce Near Set of 1972 Pittsburgh Press “Buc-A-Day” Pirates 21 of 25. Issued as part of the newspaper in March 1972, these “cards” picture a Pirates player in street clothes and provide biographical and career information. About 3 3/8” wide, they vary in length from 9 ¼” to slightly over 11”, depending on the amount of biographical data. The missing players are May, Hebner, Miller and Hernandez. All the key players are here – Clemente, Stargell, Mazeroski, Ellis, Blass, Oliver, Moose, Sanguillen, Veale, etc. These features were neatly trimmed from the newspaper; in almost all cases the border is complete. Technically, they grade vg to vg-ex, with an occasional corner chip or border tear. They look better and are all the more desirable because of their scarcity.
Winning Bid $366.
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