Harry Wright Scorecard in Clean Sweep

[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.

[barrysloate]

You didn't do anything wrong Gary by buying it. What's done is done. You should just enjoy it.

Wright used to sell blank booklets in his sporting goods store. I believe each booklet was around 32 pages and could score 16 games. He used these books himself, often going through six or seven to complete a season. He would have them bound together, with leather covers, and the result were his famous scorebooks which he kept meticulously from 1878 to 1893 (there could have been other years but they are unknown).

The individual 32 page booklets stand nicely on their own, and I owned a couple of those too over the years. When those season books were first split, the individual sections were being offered for sale.

But when those booklets were torn up to sell as individual pages, the whole history was destroyed, since each individual page featured one team from each of two separate games. But somebody figured out the autographs were worth more than the scoresheets, and therein lies the problem.

[doug.goodman]

I would love to have a full game, but am saddened to say that I am kind of interested in a page. I guess Gary and I are of like minds.

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by 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.

There are some out there who would gladly cut up the Declaration. Lots of rare cuts .

[bigfanNY]

And they would sell them to collectors trying to piece together a collection of singers of the Decloration of Independence..