Saturday, June 8, 2013

1930s Signed Baseball - Wes Shulmerich

I'm getting down to the final names on the baseball.  This one, of Wes Schulmerich, is the second signature on the Sweet Spot of the baseball.  Schulmerich (b. 1901 - d. 1985) played in the majors from 1931 to 1934 for the Boston Braves (1931 to 1933), Phillies (1933 and 1934) and Reds (1934).  In his career, he had 417 hits, 27 home runs and a lifetime .289 batting average.

He was originally signed by the Cubs and was traded to the Boston Braves on October 14, 1930.  That takes him out of possibly being with the team for Spring Training of 1930.  I had originally thought, since Ed Gharrity last played in 1930, that all of the players could have been gotten at one Spring Training game.  It is still possible that Gharrity was with the Senators for the Spring of 1930 as a coach or something, so my guess would still be that this ball was signed in 1931 during Spring Training.  Another possibility is that whomever got the ball signed went to two games and got signatures both times.  It is definitely a mystery, still, for sure.  I can safely narrow it down to sometime between 1930 and 1931, though and that is really cool.

Players Identified:
Joe Cronin
Lance Richbourg
Randy Moore
Bill Sherdel
Sam West
Joe Kuhel
Ossie Bluege
Ed Gharrity
Fred Maguire

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