March 2021 Auction

Lot #1:

1933-36 Zeenut PCL Joe DeMaggio (DiMaggio)(Batting) with Coupon PSA 5 EX

In 1936, only two years after the departure of Babe Ruth, the heralded rookie came to spring training facing big expectations. Writing in The Sporting News on March 26, Dan Daniel noted, “Yankee fans regard him as the Moses who is to lead their club out of the second-place wilderness....”It didn’t take long for the rookie to make his mark. Halfway through the season, when he was hitting around .350 and had started in right field in the All-Star Game, his photo was on the cover of Time magazine. For the year he hit .323 with 29 homers and drove in 125 runs. DiMaggio was the classic five-tool player; in addition to hitting for average and power, he could run, throw, and field. Joe McCarthy, the Yankees manager from 1931 to 1946, called him the best base runner he ever saw. His all-around play led the 1936 Yankees to the first of four straight World Series titles. The 21-year-old sensation had established himself as the successor to Babe Ruth. After the Series, he received a hero’s welcome in his home town of San Francisco, where Mayor Angelo Rossi gave him the key to the city. DiMaggio finished second in the MVP vote in 1937, despite leading the American League in home runs, slugging percentage, runs, and total bases. He won the first of his three MVP Awards in 1939, when he led the league with a career-best .381 average. Following that season, he married 21-year-old Dorothy Arnold, a singer, dancer, and actress he met while filming a bit part in the movie Manhattan Merry-Go-Round. By then the 6-foot-2, 190-pound outfielder was acknowledged as the best player in baseball, but to some his ethnic background was still ripe for stereotypical portrayal. In a cover story in the May 1, 1939 issue of Life magazine, Noel Busch identified DiMaggio as a “tall, thin Italian youth equipped with slick black hair” and “squirrel teeth.” But the young ballplayer apparently confounded Busch’s general perception of Italian Americans. “Although he learned Italian first, Joe, now twenty-four, speaks English without an accent and is otherwise well adapted to most U.S. mores." The featured relic is without question one of not the most important cards of Joe D's cardboard career. The offered specimen has been graded EX 5 by PSA and is found with the ever important coupon fully intact. To date the featured collectible hails as being just 1 of 2 copies that has been graded by PSA and is the highest graded copy known with the coupon. At first inspection the featured card appears in advance of the assessed grade with a slight chip of the top layer of paper apparent at the upper left corner, while each of the other three corners appear minimally NM or better. The reverse of this blank backed card does present a small fine 3/4" wrinkle that does not overwhelm the enthusiast. To offer context of a pricing assessment, a recent sale of a 1925 Exhibit Lou Gehrig PSA 6 (MK) garnered over $800,000.00, while this card is obviously that card it should be given strong consideration of being a card within that realm as it is the most important card of DiMaggio's career in the opinion of this auctioneer. A stunning presentation offered at the very top of the PSA Population Report. As good as it gets!