This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/6/2021
Hall of Fame legend Christy Mathewson was cut from a different cloth than most athletes of his era. While baseball players were generally viewed as uneducated hooligans who spent their free time gambling, boozing, or womanizing, Mathewson was a refined family man. Having attended high school at the prestigious Keystone Academy before honing his craft at Bucknell University, his clean-cut, intellectual demeanor and devout beliefs (he never pitched on Sunday) earned him the nickname "The Christian Gentleman" and helped improve the image of the sport. But put him on a baseball mound and his opponents will tell you; Christy Mathewson was no gentleman at all! His blazing fastball, pinpoint accuracy, and "fadeaway" (later known as the screwball) propelled him to 373-lifetime victories and four World Series appearances with the New York Giants. Other than that, Mathewson is a bit of a mystery compared to more "public" figures like Ruth and Cobb. Christy retired at the age of 35 and immediately signed up with the Chemical Warfare Service of the United States Army during World War I. He survived being accidentally exposed to mustard gas during training, but his weakened respiratory system eventually gave out and he died of tuberculosis in 1925 at the age of 45, eight years after his brother Henry had suffered the same fate. Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, known for his overt disdain for the lifestyle many of his ballplayers practiced, eulogized Mathewson as "an inspiration to everybody, and may we have more of his kind." If you're fortunate enough to find a genuine Mathewson signing, it's usually on a tattered slip of paper or barely legible on a well-weathered baseball. Not this time! Featured here is an Official National League baseball with a perfectly preserved signature of Christy Mathewson. With his customary "yours truly" inscription penned above the perfectly delivered steel top fountain pen signature on a side panel, this Spalding baseball provides the perfect display for one of the most elusive signatures of any Hall of Famer. The manufacturer's stamp is every bit as bold as when it literally rolled out of the Spalding factory, somewhere in the 1919-1924 time period as identified by the markings of the stamp. A screw hole is present above the Spalding brand, likely to mount the ball so that this signature appears perfectly facing forward. Of course, that's of no consequence given the absolute magnificence of this piece of history. Until we're proven wrong, we stand by our statement that this is the finest Christy Mathewson single-signed ball known to exist! Full LOA from JSA.