Harry Wright Scorecard in Clean Sweep

[doug.goodman]

Hi all -

Let me know if anybody else has an opinion on this scorecard.

I believe that the scorecard in the listing is actually from two games, which would make sense since it's the front and back on a page.

The front shows the Troy Trojans losing to Boston on August 17, 1881 in a game that did not last 4 hrs and 55 minutes, but it ended at 4:55 pm.

The back is the Boston losing effort to Worcester on August 20, 1881.

It's still pretty cool, though.

Doug

[Michael B]

It states the first game ran from 3:30 to 4:55 p.m. so there is no mistaking the length of the game. Interesting item.

[GaryPassamonte]

These are two pages from Harry Wright's score books for 1881. Some pages have Wright's full signature, some have his initials, and some have neither. At one time, Wright's score books were in bound volumes for a few different year's. Apparently the owner of the 1881 volume decided there was money to be made be tearing the pages out of the volume. That is why there are usually two different games represented on the front and back of one sheet. I believe the Wright volumes for other years are still in tact, but I could be wrong. In 1995 volumes for 1878, 1879, and 1880 were part of the Mark Rucker auction. I'm unsure of their whereabouts.

[bigfanNY]

I agree with Gary. This is a nice page with a small but clear signature. And the Auto is clearly the key factor to value. If you had a page from same book with no signature value would much less.

[barrysloate]

As someone who was part of the original find of Harry Wright scorebooks back in 1990, it breaks my heart to see these books torn apart into individual pages. Both the 1881 and 1883 season books have been destroyed by greedy sellers who had no respect whatsoever for baseball history.

As others have said, this is the front and back of two separate games. The value is in the signature, which is substantial. As Gary noted, only a small number of pages have a full signature. The great majority are either initialed "H.W." or are left blank.

I had two of the original books in my collection at one point: the 1883, which no longer exists, and the 1879, which I sold to a major collector. Fortunately the 1879 will stay intact for many years to come.

[GaryPassamonte]

Amen, Barry. It's all about the money and similar to cutting up bats and uniforms to make chase cards. Maybe we should cut up the Mona Lisa or the Declaration of Independence so that people could get a piece. Why not? I have to admit to buying one of these sheets because Ross Barnes played in the game. I have never felt good about that purchase.