1951 Baseball Writers' Association Dinner Program

[ocjack]

A former business associate had the original of this program and try as I might, he would not sell it to me. He said his father had been in attendance at the dinner and had personally obtained all of the autographs on the last page. He was kind enough to allow me to make a copy. I recently uncovered it while doing some re-arranging of my memorabilia and thought I would share it with all of you.

Funny aside, he allowed me to take it to the 1991 national card show to see what it was worth. I approached one of the major dealers sitting in front. He said it was a great item and that he would give me $100 for it. I kept a straight face and said if it was only worth that much, I might as well cut it into individual signatures. He almost choked on his gum.

There are 17 signatures. Ralph Branca, Fred Clarke, Ty Cobb, Mickey Cochran, Leo Durocher, Hugh Duffy, Jimmy Foxx, Charles Gehringer, Rogers Hornsby, Charles "Kid" Nichols, Mel Ott, George Sisler, Tris Speaker, Ed Stankey, Pie Traynor, Ed Walsh and Cy Young.

By the way, the program's content is just as interesting. Looks like they had a lot of fun in those days.