A favorite non-HOFer....Lefty O'Doul....show us some of his stuff

[MooseDog]

Great thread...I have always held that O'Doul belongs in the Hall of Fame. A travesty really not just for his MLB accomplishments but for what he did to expand the game to Japan and by virtue all of Asia.

I was extremely fortunate to have acquired a number of items from his estate but most of the good stuff was sold off to Dick Dobbins years ago during the many times I ran into financial difficulty. One piece I surely wish I had back was a signed program from the 1934 Goodwill Tour of Japan signed by everyone except Ruth and signed by Gehrig twice. Probably now worth 20x what Dick paid for it, which was a fair price at the time.

The PSA 1936 Zeenut w/coupon that David M. posted was once mine. That one was actually from the estate so it was "Lefty Owned". I sold that when I was new to PSA grading and had been out of the hobby for awhile. Judging by the emails I got after I sold it someone got a heck of a deal at the time.

I also think I have the original photo that was used to make the cover of that scrapbook presented to Lefty. I'd like to find that. I'll post more stuff and help keep this thread alive. Hope it's OK since they aren't cards.

Here is one picture from the estate that I already had scanned. That's O'Doul swinging and even without seeing his face it's pretty obvious who his golf partner is.

[71buc]

Spring Training 1930 Lefty is in the middle

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by MooseDog

Great thread...I have always held that O'Doul belongs in the Hall of Fame. A travesty really not just for his MLB accomplishments but for what he did to expand the game to Japan and by virtue all of Asia.

I was extremely fortunate to have acquired a number of items from his estate but most of the good stuff was sold off to Dick Dobbins years ago during the many times I ran into financial difficulty. One piece I surely wish I had back was a signed program from the 1934 Goodwill Tour of Japan signed by everyone except Ruth and signed by Gehrig twice. Probably now worth 20x what Dick paid for it, which was a fair price at the time.


Here is one picture from the estate that I already had scanned. That's O'Doul swinging and even without seeing his face it's pretty obvious who his golf partner is.

MooseDog

First....Dick Dobbins was one of the greatest guys in this hobby I had the priviledge of knowing.


2nd....DITTO....to what you said regarding Lefty O'Doul not being in the HOF. O'Doul's 11 year career with a .349 lifetime Batting Avg. (4th all-time high BA in the Majors)
certainly qualifies him to be in the HOF.;

Manager (and then hitting instructor) from 1935 - 1961 in the PCL, O'Doul tutored some of the greatest in BB.......Joe and Dom DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Willie
McCovey, and more.


3rd......might this photo of the Babe be the front view of your photo that day with the Babe and Lefty O'Doul ?






TED Z

[MooseDog]

Ted - they threw the mold away when they made Dobbins. He was truly a "good man" in every sense of the word. Wonderful teacher and collecting mentor.

I think that photo is probably from the same golf outing. There isn't anything on the back of my photo, but here was another, where both Lefty and Babe are wearing the same clothes, in the last Yee auction. If I recall that listing stated the golf outing was either in Hawaii or SF on the way to Japan on one of the Goodwill Tours.

May be hard for some of the younger guys to fathom, but all that talent traveled to Japan on trains and boats. It was a VERY long journey.

[jerrys]

odoul.jpg

[MooseDog]

1921 Zeenut from the O'Doul estate...