The 500 Home Run Club – A Little Luck and A Whole Lot of Power!

On August 11, 1929, Babe Ruth sent a Willis Hudlin pitch over the right field wall for his 30th home run of the season. The Yankees lost that game 6-5 but “The Bambino” made history as the charter member of the legendary 500 home run club. Before Ruth, the concept of a 500 home run hitter seemed ludicrous as his predecessor to the throne, Roger Conner, held the top mark for 24 years with 138 dingers. Oh, you could make the argument that those were the “dead-ball” days and the game changed dramatically in the 1920’s (and of course, it did), but consider that the same day Ruth touched all four bases for the 500th time in his career, #2 on the list was 33-year old Rogers Hornsby, who also hit a home run and pushed his career total to 233. It takes a combination of consistent greatness and injury-free longevity to reach the magic number, with the long list of baseball players that came up just short including such icons as Lou Gehrig (493), Stan Musial (475) and Carl Yastrzemski (453).

Welcome to the Club! Ruth has Company

As the home run became a more integral part of the game, players came along with greater power and longevity. Though challenging Ruth’s 714-lifetime homers was still a pipedream, the idea that another superstar could join Ruth at the 500 home run plateau seemed attainable given the right circumstances. When Babe set the single-season record in 1927 by notching 60 round-trippers, a mark that would stand for over 30 years, he single-handedly hit more home runs than every TEAM in the American League. Teammates Gehrig and Lazzeri finished 2nd and 3rd with 47 and 18 respectively. But just five years later, with Ruth’s career winding down, the 30 home-run hitter was no longer an aberration. Eleven years after Ruth started the club, Jimmie Foxx next crossed the barrier and New York’s Mel Ott joined as the first member from the National League five years after that. Where once there was just Ruth now stood three. But it was time to set a few more places at the table, this party was just getting started!

The 1950’s – Going, Going …. Gone!

It would be another 15 years before baseball would see another 500 homer guy with Ted Williams gaining admittance in 1960, having lost several years to military service. And while the 1950s didn’t celebrate a 500 home run hitter, it produced a new wave of superstars that made it the golden age of baseball and opened the club to new membership. Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays started their assault on “The Big Apple” in 1951, followed by Eddie Mathews in ‘52, Ernie Banks in ‘53, Harmon Killebrew and Hank Aaron in ‘54, Frank Robinson in ‘56 and Willie McCovey in ‘59. Eight new members that began their careers in the 1950s had all crossed into the club, with Mantle and Mathews doing it two months apart in 1967 and Aaron joining exactly a year after Mathews. Adding in Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt and Eddie Murray, the 500 home run club was up to 15 members, all of which are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Since 1999, 12 more members have entered the 500 home run club since; McGwire,Palmeiro, Bonds, Sheffield, Sosa, Griffey, F. Thomas, Thome, M. Ramirez, A. Rodriguez, Ortiz and Pujols.

MHCC Offering Collection of Game-Used Bats from Each Member of the 500 Home Run Club and More!

The Sigurd Berg Collection: Autograph Collection Down to a Science

When I was 9 years old, I bought a 1959 Hank Aaron All-Star card #561 at a flea market for three dollars. I had this idea that I would mail it to Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and ask “The Hammer” if he would autograph it for me. I included a very polite letter and a self-addressed stamped envelope. Aaron was by no means my favorite player but he had just passed the Babe as the all-time home run king so he was the biggest name in baseball. I figured he would get it in a few days, sign it, and mail it back. Maybe two weeks total (did I mention I was 9 years old?). Two weeks went by … nothing. Then it became two months … still nothing. After the third month, I’d given up on it and moved on. As it so happens, eight months after I sent the card, I had mail. It was my Hank Aaron card with a black marker signature across the image! Many of you probably tried this at one time. In the 1940s and 50s, Sigurd Berg did it all the time, and he had it down to a science. Cranking out autograph requests on a massive scale, the Sigurd Berg collection now stands as a testimonial to autograph hunting as an art form.

You’ve Got Mail!

The Sigurd Berg approach to autograph collecting was simple; arm yourself with note cards, envelopes and stamps and write to everyone! Not only did he write to the greatest baseball players of his time, he wrote to athletes of all sports. He wrote to Olympians. He wrote to coaches. There are even rumors that he wrote to scientists, entertainers, politicians, inventors, anyone he thought might sign an autograph for him. I’m sure plenty of people never responded, but all it cost him was some paper and a pair of postage stamps. Berg would send out a note card with a request for an autograph to add to his collection, placing a typed dotted line and a title, something along the lines of “Cy Young- Star Baseball Pitcher.” More often than not, the autograph he received was a bold, clean signature as the signer was able to oblige at their convenience, not having to rush through the autograph to get to the next one as usually happens with personal appearances. Virtually every autograph is of at least NM/MT quality with many of the really high-prized pieces assessed at MINT or GEM MINT. Berg would even format the return envelope the same way, adding his return address somewhere out of the way to make the signature the focal point of the piece but also ensure its safe return. Quite often, the signer would sign that as well, giving Berg a very shrewd “two-fer.” The daily trip to the mailbox to mark that day’s haul became a source of adventure and excitement, not knowing if he scored a beautiful signature of Golf Hall of Famer Julius Boros, Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens, legendary college basketball coach Adolph Rupp or Baseball Hall of Famer Zack Wheat; maybe even all four. Sometimes it was just the envelope that came back signed but not the note card. Some envelopes likely ended up “lost” in the mail as the signature of a Jimmie Foxx or Charles Lindbergh would be exposed for the world to see. But enough of them found their way home, and most are truly spectacular!

Mile High Card Company Offers the Sigurd Berg Collection in the March Catalog Auction.

Over 100 lots are dedicated to the Sigurd Berg Collection, led by a wonderful PSA/DNA 9 MINT example of Babe Ruth. There are several pieces that rank among the finest autographs known, with PSA/DNA 10 GEM MINT autographs of Grover Cleveland Alexander, Tris Speaker and Nellie Fox and PSA/DNA 9 MINT signatures of Ty Cobb, Dazzy Vance, Nap Lajoie, Cy Young and Honus Wagner. There is a wide variety of autographs from heroes of various sports, including Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Pop Warner, Helen Wills Moody, George Halas, James Jefferies, Gene Tunney, Jesse Owens, Althea Gibson and Jack Dempsey. A stunning Jack Nicklaus signature, signed shortly after defeating Arnold Palmer at the 1962 U. S. Open for his first career victory, heads up a large selection of golfers. If you’re a vintage autograph collector, you’ll be amazed at the wide variety of hard to find signatures, all authenticated by PSA/DNA and delivered with NM/MT to GEM MINT quality.