Word: honus
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...most antique rarity of all may be an image of Pittsburgh Pirate Shortstop Honus Wagner, issued around 1910. About two dozen copies are known to exist. The king of baseball-card collectors, Larry Fritsch of Stevens Point, Wis., who claims to have more than 1 million cards stashed away, bought his Wagner for $1,300 in 1974. According to price guides, the same card would fetch $35,000 today...
This is not a vendetta against the irascible genius who batted .367 over 24 seasons, though relative merits are always debatable (see box). Rose has decided "you couldn't be that bad a guy and get 4,191 hits." And he has known all along "you can't compare Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb with Peter Rose and (Boston's .349-batting) Wade Boggs. I respect all of the old-timers. They did what they had to do against the competition they had to play against. The travel was better in those days; the surfaces are better today...
...stop along the road when we were traveling and order a half dozen hot dogs and as many bottles of soda pop, stuff them in one after the other, give a few big belches, and then roar,'ok boys, let's go... Another original Hall of Famer, Honus Wagner, "just ate the ball up with his big hands, like a scoopshovel, and when he threw it to first base you'd see pebbles and dirt and everything else flying over along with the ball the greatest shortstop ever. The greatest everything ever." This nostalgic sense of a greatness lost runs...
...Glory of Their Times is laced with splendid photographs, many taken from the player's personal collections, and others dug up by Ritter at library and newspaper archives across the country. Such illustrations as an early Coca Cola advertisement and the moving endpiece depicting John J. McGraw and Honus Wagner reveal photography at its moving best. The illustrations are worth the price of the book alone...
Baseball cards have been young fans' link to the major leagues since the turn of the century, when they first appeared in cigarette, grocery, and tobacco packages. Even the most novice of collectors knows why Honus Wagner's 1909 card is so valuable--Wagner objected to smoking and chewing and forced the company marketing his likeness to round up and destroy his cards, with only nine surviving...