2021 National Pickup - Joe Medwick Signed Baseball

There are many timed where I have gone to shows or seen items on Ebay that I wanted, only to see them get sold before I could pull the trigger.  I had been watching a ball at the National for the first couple of days, and when I went by there on Saturday, the ball was gone.  The dealer had another ball, for a little bit higher of a price that I didn't look at before.  This ball had six Hall of Famers (as opposed to only three), and three of them were guys I needed for my collection.  So, it turned out that my reluctance to buy the original ball paid off.

I added this ball, which was signed by several Cardinals "old timers" back in the early 70s.  It has six Hall of Famers.  The three on the ball that I already had were Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter and Johnny Mize.  

Joe Medwick (b. 1911 - d. 1975) was a player who I have been wanting to add to my collection for a long time.  He is one of those Hall of Famers who doesn't stand out on the surface (like Stan Musial, for example), but when you look at his numbers, he was a pretty good ball player.

The 1937 NL MVP and a 10-time All Star (1934-1940, 1941, 1942 and 1944; he had 2,471 hits, 205 home runs and a .324 batting average.  He was the NL batting champion in 1937 when he hit .374.  He had 11 seasons where he hit .300 or more.  He had 3 seasons with 220 or more hits.  He was the Triple Crown winner in 1937.

Medwick played from 1932 to 1948 for the Cardinals, Dodgers, Giants and Braves.  He won the 1934 World Series with the Cardinals.  He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1968, his 11th time on the ballot (including two run-offs).  

Medwick was hired as a hitting instructor for the Cardinals minor leagues in 1966.  During Spring Training in 1975, Medwick had a heart attack and died in St. Petersburg Florida.

Medwick becomes my 155th Hall of Famer on a baseball.