Saturday, June 1, 2013

1930s Baseball Signatures - Bill Sherdel

The next name on my 1930s baseball that I wanted to talk about is on the side panel, above Randy Moore and Lance Richbourg, former pitcher Bill Sherdel.  Sherdel (b. 1896 - d. 1968) played in the majors from 1918 to 1932 for the Cardinals (1918 to 1930 and 1932) and Boston Braves (1930 to 1932).  He was 165-146 with 839 strikeouts and a 3.72 career ERA.  He went 21-10 in 1928 with a 2.86 ERA (and 5 saves...???) for the Cardinals.

Sherdel played in two World Series, beating the Yankees in 1926 with the Cardinals and then losing to the Yankees again with the Cardinals in 1928.  He is the first World Series winner that I have discovered on this ball.

He appeared on 9 Hall of Fame ballots but never got more than 0.8% of the vote.  He does have a Hall of Fame connection, though.  He was traded, along with Fred Frankhouse to the Boston Bracves from the Cardinals for Hall of Famer Burleigh Grimes.

Sherdel ties into Lance Richbourg and Randy Moore in that he was on the same Braves team that they were on for part of 1930 and then the full 1931 season.  It is looking more and more that this ball could have been signed in 1931.

Identified so far:

Joe Cronin
Lance Richbourg
Randy Moore

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