My 5000th Post and A Holy Grail Type Pickup
 

Went to a local auction last night for the sports items from the estate of Don "Fox" Bryant who started his career as a sports writer for the Lincoln newspaper and later became the Sports Information Director and Assistant AD for the University of Nebraska. He was a legend around here. I am good friends with the guys who run the auction company that handled the sale and I got a text from one of them a month back that said I'd be interested in this sale because it has Lincoln Chiefs items, including a "painted baseball". As soon as I read that I texted back to show me a pic. I was hoping beyond hope that the ball was a George Sosnak. He texted me a pic and as soon as I saw it I knew it was. I've been waiting an entire month to get my hands on it and indeed I made it mine last night. Certainly a grail type item for my collection and one that of course I never knew existed and probably very few people even knew it existed. I picked up a lot of other stuff last night too, including the official scorebook for the Chiefs from 1956-57 which includes all the games played by Dick Stuart during his record breaking 66 homer year, but this ball was the highlight for me. I have no idea who wrote the inscription of the sticker from "George Soshner". :D

That's fantastic! Congratulations! Do you mind if I ask what it brought relative to what it is worth--no need to give actual values just curious how competition for it at the auction was.

I paid next to nothing for it compared to relative value because the auction was centered around Nebraska Football memorabilia and 99.9% of the crowd was there for football items. The auction had been advertised for nearly a month and I was hoping no one who read the catalog would know the name Sosnak or research it. Luckily for me no one did. :)

Awesome ball! Congrats.

Amazing item Dan! Quite a significant piece for guys that collect items like we do. Congrats!

Sosnak ball
 

Holy grail, indeed.

Fantastic. Congrats Dan. Glad it is where it belongs, and that you survived the torturous month waiting for it ;)

Thanks guys. And it was indeed torturous! :D

Congrats. Awesome Ball!!!

Beautiful and exquisite piece... Not to mention the Nebraska connection and obvious rarity.

Many congrats, Dan!!

That is an amazing looking ball, congrats!

Nice Dan- congrats! :)

Congrats on your success. I am sure the last month has been agonizing. You probably played the auction out in your mind a thousand times. Enjoy your grail!

Jeff

Absolutely Wonderful Dan. Congrats!!

That's fantastic! So happy that you landed it, and getting it for a great prices makes it that much sweeter.

Oh Boy !!
 

WOW !!!! That is quite a treasure. Congrats!

Congrats.

That ball is cool, but the scorebook sounds amazing.

Doug

Live auctions like that are the best. Congrats!!!

It is and I got an even better deal on it. :) Here it is including a look at one of those 66 homers.

Another very cool item I picked up last night while others were focused on that Husker football memorabilia was this book by Christy Walsh that he drew a Babe Ruth cartoon in on the first page and personalized it to Cy Sherman. Sherman was an early sports writer in Lincoln and is credited with giving Nebraska the nickname "Cornhuskers" after years of calling them the Bug Eaters, Tree Planters, Old Gold Knights and Antelopes. Also the Western League baseball park Sherman Field was named for him.

Walsh book
 

Great book. There is a similar one online for 2850 dollars. I imagine you got your for quite a bit less.

Uh, yeah. Less than 10% of that figure. :D

That is beautiful.