Lets see your: Stan Coveleskis

[nat]

I wonder if there are fewer Coveleskis out there than any other 20th century hall of famer? He played in exactly the wrong time for baseball cards - started right after the tobacco era and retired right before the gum era. And even lots of the sets of strip cards that were issued during his career leave him out.

Here's a W522. One of the sets that does include him. PSA has only graded seven copies of this card, although I suspect that strip cards, what with their usually horrible condition, probably get graded at a lower rate than other issues.

Let's see your Coveleskis!

[brianp-beme]

Here is an E121 American Caramel Series 120 card of our man Stan, complete with team updates, pink cross-hatching, and all the trimmings.

Brian

[Exhibitman]

Here's a scarce one:



Bottom right panel.

[GeoPoto]

Stanley A. "Stan" Coveleski. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1925-1927. 215 wins and 21 saves in 14 MLB seasons. Specialized in throwing spitballs as one of 17 "grandfathered" MLB spitball pitchers. 1920 World Series champion. 1923 and 1925 AL ERA leader. 1920 AL strikeout leader. Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame. 1969 inducted to MLB Hall of Fame. Debuted with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1912. His best season was probably 1918 with the Cleveland Indians as he posted a 22-13 record with a 1.82 ERA on 311 innings pitched.

[paul]

Here's my Zeenut Coveleski, complete with the frame I used to turn the card into a screensaver.

[nat]

Except for the Zeenut, all the cards in this thread feature the same picture. (Although they seem to have reversed the negative when printing mine.) Were there just not many photographs available for card makers back then?

[triwak]

My E121. I recall paying more than expected for this, considering I had never really heard of him before starting a HOF collection. Makes sense now, considering the limited sets that feature him.

[bxb]

Same picture, different card:

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1714598217

[doug.goodman]

Of course I'll add my usual(s)...

I believe that the one with the single line caption as released in Dec 1920, and the two line caption version came out in January 1925, but my m114 release dates study isn't completed, yet.

[BuzzD]

He was briefly a Yankee in 1928. Here is a Thorne Photo

[bcbgcbrcb]

Don’t know where you found that one, Paul. Back in the early 2000’s when I was doing the HOF RC collection, the Zeenut Coveleski was the only pre-rookie of all the Zeenuts sets that I was never able to own. A near impossible card to find from probably the scarcest Zeenut set there is.

[carlsonjok]

Not pre-war, but the only one I have:

[brianp-beme]

The E220 National Caramel has the same photo also. Coveleski was one of the players during the 1920's that had his name spelled incorrectly on a frequent basis, about the same frequency as occurred with either Ross Youngs (Young) or Rogers (Roger) Hornsby, but with more misspelling variety. Because of this I assume the Roaring 20's was also known as the 'Spelling Deficient Decade'.

The E220 set is an interesting early 1920's set that contains a large percentage of unique photos (but obviously not Coveleski) not seen in other sets. Another set from that same stretch of time, W503, is also a great one because it includes all (I believe) unique photos of the 64 players included, which Stan is one of them. Perhaps someone (if this were a MLB trade this Net54 player would be named later) will provide Coveleski's W503 card image.

Brian

[brianp-beme]

Ends up the Net54 player to be named later be brianp-beme.

Brian

[Seiklis]

Might as well add his only Yankee card (least I think it is)

[GeoPoto]

Coveleski had almost 1,200 MLB plate appearances, but hit only .159.
Here he is swinging the bat in 1925:

[h2oya311]

Agree 100% with Phil. Paul, your 1915 Zeenut is off-the-charts impossible. I saw one in a huge lot of Zeenuts a few years ago, but there was no way I could pull the trigger with the final hammer price. Maybe I should have!

At this point, it’s a white whale for me.

For now, I’ll have to settle for this W522 (with more border than most):

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Apparently, photographers of the era weren't too keen on capturing him for posterity. How many issues recycled the same image?! This is almost as bad as certain Negro Leaguers where there's only 1-2 known period photos!

[Brian Van Horn]

Already posted by other members, but....and I have two E220s of him. They are in a cedar chest.

[FromVAtoLA]

If anyone has a 1925 Exhibits of Stan that they are looking to sell please message me. I've been working on a set of all of the players interviewed in Glory of Their Times and using the PSA set version to build it. Still trying to track that one down along with a few others.

[itjclarke]

Signed Stan

[jerseygary]

If you're interested in reading about Stan's brother Harry, the "Giant Killer," I wrote and illustrated a piece about him here:

https://studiogaryc.com/2023/04/24/harry-coveleskie/

I also wrote about the other Coveleski brothers who played ball as well as why Harry spelled his last name with a "skie" and Stan ended his with a "ski."

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by jerseygary

If you're interested in reading about Stan's brother Harry, the "Giant Killer," I wrote and illustrated a piece about him here:

https://studiogaryc.com/2023/04/24/harry-coveleskie/

I also wrote about the other Coveleski brothers who played ball as well as why Harry spelled his last name with a "skie" and Stan ended his with a "ski."

Very nice article, thanks for posting. Harry has a great E93 card.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by jerseygary

I also wrote about the other Coveleski brothers who played ball as well as why Harry spelled his last name with a "skie" and Stan ended his with a "ski."

Stan in fact used to end the surname with an "e", as is evidenced by some career-era signatures. I do know that, in 1925, he spelled it both ways! He really wasn't a prolific signer in his younger years. Practically everything you see was signed following his induction. Thankfully, he lived to sign for many years after being elected.

Edit: I just happened to read where you wrote that Harry's HOF questionnaire was filled out by Stan. You may wish to revise. It was signed by Stan, but Stan's wife completed the rest in her hand.

[Snapolit1]

Not a card, so a bit OT, but thought any Stan Coveleski fans might appreciate.

Bought this Ruth Gehrig photo a few years ago. It was owned by Stan and displayed in his living room for many years. The back is inscribed in blue ink by Coveleski:

"Lou Gehrig & Babe Ruth, I never get any credit for making a hitter out of Babe R. He pitched a game against me, he hit the hardest home run I ever had hit off me, 1 wk later they took him away from pitching & put him in the outfield, so I always said to myself I made a hitter out of him."

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Would love to see a photo of the writing, Steve.

[Snapolit1]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

Would love to see a photo of the writing, Steve.

Here you go.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Thanks!

That's actually Stan's second wife's handwriting, as I expected. He delegated all the writing other than that of his own signature to her.

Interestingly, he married Mae Shivetts in 1915 and Frances Shivetts in 1924!

There's been a longstanding belief that Stan was illiterate for any purpose other than signing his name, but I have seen his handwriting which disproves that. One longtime dealer still stands by the illiteracy belief, but I'm 100% convinced otherwise. The Coveleski boys had limited schooling, but according to Stan, they each attended school for four years*. Enough time to learn how to read and write, albeit, perhaps, on a semi-functional level. Both men exhibited a laborious hand when writing, however, and each employed the assistance of their better halves with any writing, and sometimes even signing for them. While Stan at least signed more than 99% of his own autographs, Harry wasn't as good about it. It's my estimation that he only signed about 30% of the surviving mail request autographs that still exist. There are exceedingly fewer examples of Harry's autograph in existence than Stanley's, so my estimate is based purley on the number of pieces I've enountered over my lifetime of doing this.

My guess with Stan is that it was simply less taxing for Frances to do this work, so that's what was done. He could have very well felt embarrassed by his poor spelling. Apparently, Frances wasn't by hers! She was usually good for a spelling error or three herself. By the time he was inducted, he was already an old man, only to get more ancient over the ensuing 20+ years he graced the earth. With the flood of requests coming to his mailbox, I'm sure he didn't feel up to the task of writing and spelling. Signing thousands of things was enough. The second Mrs. Coveleski would even write his notes and letters for him earlier on. You don't see that many through the mail autograph requests dating pre-induction, but I've seen notes penned by Frances and signed by Stan dating back to at least the early 1950s if not prior.

*The data for the 4 years of schooling for the boys comes directly from HOF questionnaires filled out by Frances and signed by Stan--one for each brother. What's funny is that I had it firmly in my head that Stan told Ritter that he left school after first grade. I don't have my TGOTT at hand. Anyone care to corroborate or correct me?

[Snapolit1]

That’s great info. I actually sort of suspected it was a woman’s writing. Appreciate that great info.


M

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

Thanks!

That's actually Stan's second wife's handwriting, as I expected. He delegated all the writing other than that of his own signature to her.

Interestingly, he married Mae Shivetts in 1915 and Frances Shivetts in 1924!

There's been a longstanding belief that Stan was illiterate for any purpose other than signing his name, but I have seen his handwriting which disproves that. One longtime dealer still stands by the illiteracy belief, but I'm 100% convinced otherwise. The Coveleski boys had limited schooling, but according to Stan, they each attended school for four years*. Enough time to learn how to read and write, albeit, perhaps, on a semi-functional level. Both men exhibited a laborious hand when writing, however, and each employed the assistance of their better halves with any writing, and sometimes even signing for them. While Stan at least signed more than 99% of his own autographs, Harry wasn't as good about it. It's my estimation that he only signed about 30% of the surviving mail request autographs that still exist. There are exceedingly fewer examples of Harry's autograph in existence than Stanley's, so my estimate is based purley on the number of pieces I've enountered over my lifetime of doing this.

My guess with Stan is that it was simply less taxing for Frances to do this work, so that's what was done. He could have very well felt embarrassed by his poor spelling. Apparently, Frances wasn't by hers! She was usually good for a spelling error or three herself. By the time he was inducted, he was already an old man, only to get more ancient over the ensuing 20+ years he graced the earth. With the flood of requests coming to his mailbox, I'm sure he didn't feel up to the task of writing and spelling. Signing thousands of things was enough. The second Mrs. Coveleski would even write his notes and letters for him earlier on. You don't see that many through the mail autograph requests dating pre-induction, but I've seen notes penned by Frances and signed by Stan dating back to at least the early 1950s if not prior.

*The data for the 4 years of schooling for the boys comes directly from HOF questionnaires filled out by Frances and signed by Stan--one for each brother. What's funny is that I had it firmly in my head that Stan told Ritter that he left school after first grade. I don't have my TGOTT at hand. Anyone care to corroborate or correct me?

[philliesfan]

Here is what I have.

1910 B18 Blanket S Covaleski.jpg

[edjs]

.

[yanksfandboll20]

Here is my Coveleskie for the HOF PC

Untitled by Dylan Boll, on Flickr

[TheBig6]

Scorecard from 2nd half of a double hitter played Aug.7, 1926 where Covey pitched a complete game and beat his old team (The Indians) 9-2.;He also batted 2 for 4 with 2 RBI’s.

[CooperstownExpert]

Cool stuff to see!

These two are not exactly cards, but hopefully you guys appreciate it anyway.

Here's Stan's lifetime pass from 1934 and a letter he wrote in 1941. They're both on his page on my website, CooperstownExpert.com. You can click here to check out Stan's page.

Every Hall of Famer and a few hundred other guys have a page, usually with a signature or two.

[jimtodd]

Here's my 2 cents. Took forever to find one for my hall-of-fame collection...and I live in Cleveland! I love the inscription "Hold What You Got". I also have an autographed photo somewhere.

[alywa]

Definitely one of the tougher HOFers. Outside of the Negro Leagues, I'd rank him as number 2 behind Burkett

1922 Coveleskie.jpg