Honus Wagner

The Top 10 Most Expensive Baseball Cards

2008-10-12T16:29:00.004-04:00

Friday Night Lists recently put out a list of a the Top 10 Most Expensive Baseball Cards. It's no surprise that The Honus Wagner T206 came in at #1. Here's a quick look at the others that made the list:

10) 1951 Bowman #305 Willie Mays
9) 1954 Bowman #664 Ted Williams
8) Goudey 1933 'Heads-Up' R323 #274 Joe DiMaggio
7) Goudey 1933 #53 Babe Ruth
6) Leaf 1949 #8 Satchel Paige
5) Cracker Jack 1914 E145-1 #30 Ty Cobb
4) Cracker Jack 1914 E145-1 #103 Joe Jackson
3) Topps 1952 #311 Mickey Mantle
2) Goudey 1953 #106 Nap Lajoie
1) 1909 T206 #366 Honus Wagner

Some of the entries are surprising and I've seen a number of other cards sell for higher than the prices that are listed in the to 10 list but it's a brave attempt to create a top 10 list. Hopefully it will encourage others to improve on the data in the list!

Honus Wagner T206 Owner Revealed

2008-10-05T10:25:00.003-04:00

October 2008 Update: It was recently revealed that the current owner of the famous Honus Wagner T206 is E.G. "Ken" Kendrick, managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team. Kendrick is a veteran collector and is believed to be creating a sports museum at Chase Field where the card will be put on display.

This is an update to my Complete Honus Wagner T206 Price History post.

Honus Wagner T206 PSA 5 Sells For $1.62 Million

2008-08-10T10:40:00.005-04:00

Last week a Honus Wagner T206 PSA EX 5 was purchased for $1.62 million. The owner John Rogers, 35, of North Little Rock, Arkansas who said purchasing the card was the fulfillment of a decades-long dream.

According to Rogers, "I call this the holy grail of baseball cards. I've looked at a number of other specimens, sat in a few other Wagner auctions. But this is the one that makes collecting worth while. Since I was 8 years old, I've hoped and dreamed that one day I'd be able to get one"

The second highest bid was $1.3 million by an anonymous bidder in the Mastro Auction for the card.

Here is an update on recent Honus Wagner T206 cards sold:

PSA 1 / SGC 10 / BVG 1:

May 2008: BVG 1 - $270,000 (Source: Robert Edward Auctions)
May 2008: SGC 10 Poor 1 - $227,050 (Source: Heritage Auctions)
2004: PSA 1 - $109,638 (Source: honuswagner.com)
2003: PSA 1 - $92,256 (Source: T206 Museum)
2003: SGC 10 Poor 1 - $90,199 (Source: T206 Museum)
2001: PSA 1 - $78,144 (Source: T206 Museum)
2001: PSA 1 - $50,935 (Source: T206 Museum)

PSA 2:

2005: PSA 2 - $236,706 (Source: T206 Museum)
2000: PSA 2 - $74,918 (Source: T206 Museum)

PSA 3:

2000: PSA 3 - $145,314 (Source: T206 Museum)

GAI 3.5:

2005: GAI 3.5 - $456,057 (Source: T206 Museum)

PSA 5:

August, 2008: PSA 5 - $1.62 million (Source: Mastro Auctions)

1896 - Meeting Ed Barrow - Honus Wagner Biography

2008-07-20T10:27:00.006-04:00

Wagner Signs with Paterson

In early 1896, plans were being made behind the scenes for Honus Wagner's future. Ed Barrow, manager of the Wheeling squad which defeated Wagner's Warren team in the season ending 1895 series, was looking to bolster his team for the coming season. He had sold Wheeling and invested into a new team, Paterson, in the newly-created Atlantic League. Barrow met with a local talent spotter, Shad Gwilliam, who suggested taking a look at Honus and his brother Al. Barrow remembered playing against them and was impressed with their talent. He felt Al was a better player but would be difficult to manage. Al had also recently signed with Toronto from the Eastern League so Barrow decided to make Honus an offer.

Barrow went to Carnegie to talk with Honus and found him engaged in a rock throwing competition with his friends. Impressed with the power of Honus' arm, Barrow was convinced that he had to sign this young talent to his new club. Honus hesitated after recalling the chaos that was the 1895 season but when Barrow ignored the league salary limit of $100 / month and offered Honus $125 / month, it made the decision to say yes much easier. Honus would be making more in the summer than the average worker earned in a year ($439).

According to Barrow:

"It was a bright and sunny day when I landed in [Carnegie] and asked directions to the Wagner brothers' pool parlor. It was located in a low, dingy red brick building, and when I went inside the place I found it was deserted except for a boy dozing in a chair with his feet up on a big round-bellied stove in the middle of the room.

I asked for Hans Wagner.

"All the fellows are down at the railroad yards, having a throwing match," the boy said, hardly stirring himself. I set off for the yards.

When I got there I could see a group of eight or ten young men walking up the tracks towards me. I walked down to meet them, and as I got closer I could make out the young Hans in the van, a derby hat on the back of his head with a chicken feather stuck in the band. He was unmistakable, with his bow legs and long arms and ambling, awkward gait.

As we came up to each other, I got to the point immediately. I asked him if he wanted to play ball for me in Paterson. Wager was diffident. He didn't know. He didn't know whether he wanted to play ball at all. As we talked he would stoop over every once in a while and pick up a lump of coal or a stone and heave it up the railroads tracks. He threw with a great sweep and almost no effort, and as I watched the rocks sail a couple of hundred feet up the track I knew I had to have this fellow on my ball club. We had a league limit of $100 a month for players, but I offered Wagner $125. He accepted and we went back to the poolroom and signed an agreement."

Wagner had a slightly different version of the story:

"When we saw him come we all ran like hell, and he had to chase us before he could get me. We thought he and his partner were a couple of railroad bulls who were trying to arrest us for throwing rocks at company property.

I thought it was pretty good pay for a young player of 22. It was the beginning of a great friendship with Barrow and a lucky break for me."

As word spread of the Wagner signing, Barrow was contacted by Captain Kerr of the Pittsburgh Pirates who again tried to land Wagner. Barrow chose to keep Honus but promised Kerr the first opportunity to acquire Wagner if he developed into a serious talent and his contract came up for sale.

Signed to a new club, Honus Wagner was ready to start the 1896 season.

David Martinez on Honus Wagner

2008-07-06T12:17:00.000-04:00

David Martinez is a member of the Society of American Baseball Research and the author of "The Book of Baseball Literacy" (published 1996 and 2000). He is also the man behind the baseball blog Baseball Mud: History, Stats, and Other Stuff, a new blog with interesting tidbits of baseball lore, literature, personalities, statistics, terminology, and more.

In one of David's posts, he discusses his opinion on how Honus Wagner is the greatest Pittsburgh Pirate of all time:

Who's the greatest? It really is no contest. Honus Wagner is not only the greatest Pirate of all time, he's one of the top five players of all time. Don't know much about Wagner? As a fielder, Wagner was the greatest of his time. As a hitter and baserunner, only Ty Cobb was better. As a positive clubhouse influence, he was unmatched. He was more beloved by fans than anybody until Babe Ruth. He was friendly with rookies and veterans alike, and he maintained his humility despite his fame.

“If I had a choice of all players who have played baseball,” long-time Yankee boss Ed Barrow, who guided Babe Ruth’s career, once said, “the first man I would select would be Honus Wagner.” And legendary manager John McGraw said: “I consider Wagner not only as the number one shortstop, but had he played in any position other than pitcher, he would have been equally great at the other seven positions. He was the nearest thing to a perfect player no matter where his manager chose to play him.”

In a subsequent post, David explains why he put Wagner on his list of the top 5 players of all time:

Other than Babe Ruth, I don't know for sure who I would list among the other top ballplayers. Probably Willie Mays, Walter Johnson, and Barry Bonds. Or maybe Roger Clemens instead of Johnson. I don't know. There are dozens of ways to crunch the numbers and each would come up with a different result.

Why Honus Wagner? He played so long ago, when the game was so different, that it seems odd to believe that a bow-legged shortstop from 100 years ago remains one of the greatest players of all time.

The way I look at it is, how much did he help his teams win and how much better was he than his contemporaries? And by that measure, Wagner is near the top of the list.

What we have is one of the greatest offensive performers of all time, playing the best shortstop, on one of the best teams of his era.

It would take a lot of convincing before I would stop revering Honus Wagner.

In his post David also compares Wagner's 1908 season to the statistics from modern day heroes like Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols to show how amazing Wagner's achievements really were.

If you haven't heard of David's blog before it's definitely worth a read - I discovered it through his Honus Wagner posts and am looking forward to future entries!

Honus Wagner on Pop History Dig

2008-06-15T10:51:00.003-04:00

I came across a great article today on Honus Wagner at The Pop History Dig. The focus of the article is on the Wagner T206 baseball card and it is one of the most in depth accounts about the card that I have seen recently.

In addition to discussing the T206 history, the article also profiles Honus Wagner the player and some of the achievements that he won as one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

Prior to finding this article I had never heard of The Pop History Dig. The site contains a unique collection of short stories about popular culture - its history, its people, and its power. Everything from Thomas Edison's inventions to Oprah Winfrey's political endorsements are fair game here - and more. Music, sports, film, and television are also part of the mix.

I'm glad I found the site and congrats to author Jack Doyle for putting together such a great resource!

The Ultimate Wagner T206 Trade?

2008-06-01T11:10:00.003-04:00

Would you trade a 1986 Topps Steve Jeltz card for a T206 Honus Wagner?

Well that's exactly what Brandon from TradeMeABetterCard is trying to do. Brandon's goal is to trade his Steve Jeltz card for other, more expensive cards, with the end goal to get a Wagner T206. From there Brandon wants to put the Wagner up for auction so he can purchase a home in his current hometown of Santa Barbara, California.

Brandon admits that the Jeltz card is a "little worthless piece of cardbord" and that he is going to "rip you off- there is no way around that." He hopes people will look past the monetary value of the trades and "along with receiving the card I'm about to trade you, you will also receive the peace of mind knowing that you helped an all around good guy."

Here is how he has done so far:

Trade #1: 1986 Topps Steve Jeltz for a 1995 Best Bob Abreu Graded 9.0 (Minor League Card)

Trade #2: Bob Abreu card for a 1992 Upper Deck Shaquille O'Neal rookie card

Trade #3: Shaquille O'Neal for a 1994 Fleer Update Alex Rodriguez rookie card Graded 8.5

Honus Wagner Pictures - Part 1

2008-05-25T13:07:00.000-04:00

"The Becket Wagner" Auction Results

2008-05-11T12:46:00.004-04:00

Just one week after a SCG 10 Poor 1 Honus Wagner T206 sold for a record $227,050, the famous baseball card set another record. Robert Edward Auctions recently sold off a Beckett graded BVG 1 on their website. Here is part of the description of the card:

Presented is an outstanding newly discovered example of the "Holy Grail" of baseball cards: The T206 Honus Wagner. Graded 1 POOR by BVG. This is an extremely attractive low-grade T206 Honus Wagner, with edge and corner wear and a few creases, but with extremely bright, bold colors, and perfect registration. No one is ever going to confuse this card with the famous Gretzky-McNall Wagner, but this card needs to make no apologies for its appearance. This is a very strong Wagner for a low-grade example, with a bold portrait image offset by a particularly strong, bright orange background, a boldly printed reverse, very clean, both front and back, and with no heavy creases disturbing the portrait image. This card is accurately graded but there is a lot more to evaluating a Wagner card than a numerical grade. Most Wagners are in low grade. This card has something that many other Wagner's do not: eye appeal.

"The Beckett Wagner" is a tremendous low-grade example of the T206 Wagner, one that compares very favorably with most other low-grade examples, and which is simply a great-looking card that elicits a positive response from everyone who sees it. The colors on this card are noticeably brighter, fresher, and bolder than most other T206 Wagners, including examples that are graded much higher. This is very likely due to the fact that this card has been stored away in ideal conditions, literally untouched and protected from all elements including light, for decades. Some cards have flaws that make collectors respond less than positively, and upon viewing make them say to themselves "That one's not for me" or "If only it were in better shape." This is a card that collectors will always hold and look at in awe, and say simply, "Wow, it's a Wagner, and it's a great looking card!" We all know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Every card is different. To most collectors, and to us, this is a beautiful card!

The card had a reserve bid of $50,000 and was expected to sell for over $100,000. After 28 bids, the dust settled on May 4th, 2008 and the card was sold for a whopping $270,000, thus setting a new record price for such a low grade Wagner T206.

Here is an update on recent Honus Wagner T206 cards sold:

PSA 1 / SGC 10 / BVG 1:

May 2008: BVG 1 - $270,000 (Source: Robert Edward Auctions)
May 2008: SGC 10 Poor 1 - $227,050 (Source: Heritage Auctions)
2004: PSA 1 - $109,638 (Source: honuswagner.com)
2003: PSA 1 - $92,256 (Source: T206 Museum)
2003: SGC 10 Poor 1 - $90,199 (Source: T206 Museum)
2001: PSA 1 - $78,144 (Source: T206 Museum)
2001: PSA 1 - $50,935 (Source: T206 Museum)

PSA 2:

2005: PSA 2 - $236,706 (Source: T206 Museum)
2000: PSA 2 - $74,918 (Source: T206 Museum)

PSA 3:

2000: PSA 3 - $145,314 (Source: T206 Museum)

GAI 3.5:

2005: GAI 3.5 - $456,057 (Source: T206 Museum)

Honus Wagner T206 SGC 10 Poor 1 Auction Results

2008-05-04T10:44:00.004-04:00

Heritage Auctions has finished its auction of the Honus Wagner T206 SGC 10 Poor 1.

As I noted last week, the minimum bid for the card when the auction started was $31,250. The card ended up selling for an astounding $227,050 (including a 19.5% buyer's premium).

The auction had 12 different bidders as was viewed over 2,000 times.

A previous PSA 1 Wagner T206 sold for $110,000 in 2005. The $227,050 price tag represents a significant jump in value and only goes to show how much card collectors want to get their hands on a famed Wagner T206.

Here is an update on recent Honus Wagner T206 cards sold:

PSA 1 / SGC 10:

2008: SGC 10 Poor 1 - $227,050 (Source: Heritage Auctions)
2004: PSA 1 - $109,638 (Source: honuswagner.com)
2003: PSA 1 - $92,256 (Source: T206 Museum)
2003: SGC 10 Poor 1 - $90,199 (Source: T206 Museum)
2001: PSA 1 - $78,144 (Source: T206 Museum)
2001: PSA 1 - $50,935 (Source: T206 Museum)

PSA 2:

2005: PSA 2 - $236,706 (Source: T206 Museum)
2000: PSA 2 - $74,918 (Source: T206 Museum)

PSA 3:

2000: PSA 3 - $145,314 (Source: T206 Museum)

GAI 3.5:

2005: GAI 3.5 - $456,057 (Source: T206 Museum)

Honus Wagner T206 SGC 10 Poor 1 Up For Auction

2008-04-27T13:34:00.007-04:00

Heritage Auctions is putting up a Honus Wagner T206 for auction. The trading card portion of the auction will end on Friday, May 2nd in an Extended Bidding format, each lot closing individually after thirty minutes of bidding inactivity following the 9 PM CST cut-off.

1909-11 T206 Honus Wagner SGC 10 Poor 1:
MINIMUM BID: $31,250 - View Auction Site

Even though the minimum bid started at $31,250, the current price is already $150,000. How much is the card worth? In 2005, a PSA 1 Honus Wagner T206 sold for $110,000. It looks like the pricing will be breaking new ground with this new auction!

According to the Heritage Auctions description:

"There is something Lincolnesque about him," Pulitzer Prize-winning sports journalist Arthur Daley once wrote, "his rugged homeliness, his simplicity, his integrity, and his true nobility of character." Hall of Fame manager John McGraw considered him the greatest ballplayer of all time, and Ty Cobb recalled him as the one man he couldn't intimidate. Yet despite the universal high praise from friends and foes, and his membership in the 1936 inaugural class of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Honus Wagner is best remembered today as the face on the most valuable and coveted of all baseball cards.

While there is some truth to the argument that Wagner's greatness plays a role in the importance of this ultimate collecting rarity, one must acknowledge that it's a supporting role only. An equal print run to contemporaries like Cobb, Young and Mathewson would almost certainly have found Wagner's value equivalent to those legends' as well. But it was Wagner's refusal of the American Tobacco Company's request for permission to use his image that set him apart and above.

The most popular story to explain this refusal is that Wagner wished to play no role in the promotion of the use of tobacco, though it has been justly stated that he was himself a user, and had appeared in advertisements for many tobacco products previously. Another theory notes Wagner's reputation as a fierce negotiator, arguing that it was nothing more than a case of a failure to agree upon a dollar figure that led the ATC to end production of Wagner's card almost as soon as it started.

This unsolved mystery has only served to further enhance the mystique of the treasure presented here, one of just a few dozen examples of the famed Honus Wagner T206 known to exist. A colorized version of a studio portrait by celebrated early baseball photographer Carl Horner, the unmistakable image on the card face finds the superstar shortstop gazing into the middle distance, set against a backdrop of solid orange. The early spelling of his hometown "Pittsburg" is applied across the chest of his high-collared jersey, and again beside his block lettered surname at the bottom border. The verso provides an advertisement for Sweet Caporal Cigarettes, and the trading cards within, noting "Base Ball Series, 150 Subjects."

Condition is admittedly imperfect, though this is the case for all but a few of the tiny supply of surviving examples. Several creases thread their way through the ancient cardboard, and the passing decades have rounded the corners smooth like water polishing stones in a riverbed. Black fountain pen ink blotches the verso, yet remains mercifully clear of the front. Though the card comes by its Poor rating honestly, it retains a dignified countenance, presenting wonderfully despite its faults.

The opportunity to play a role in the history of a piece such as this is one that should appeal to true collectors of any discipline, not just those with a particular affinity for the sporting world. Stamp collecting has the Inverted Jenny, and comics has Action #1. For baseball card collecting, the T206 Honus Wagner will always hold that special distinction as the ultimate prize, and will establish its owner as one the world's elite hobbyists.

Why is the T206 Honus Wagner Worth So Much?

2008-04-20T11:48:00.004-04:00

The T206 Honus Wagner is the most expensive baseball card in history (complete history of the Wagner T206) - but why is it worth so much?

The card was created by the American Tobacco Company (ATC) between 1909 and 1911. ATC used the cards as a promotional tool to help sell their cigarettes. ATC required the permission of the players to create the cards and Wagner was highly sought after due to his status as one of the game's greatest players.
Wagner, however, refused to let the production of the card continue and only 50 to 200 of them were put into circulation.

According to an October 12, 1912 edition of "The Sporting News", Wagner responded to ATC's request by writing that "he did not care to have his picture in a package of cigarettes."He further threatened to sue ATC if they produced the card.

There are a few theories as to why Wagner pulled the plug on ATC. The two leading ones are that he didn't want children to buy cigarettes to get his card and that he wanted more compensation from ATC.

Theory #1 - Children Buying Cigarettes

Although Honus Wagner chewed tabacco himself, he cared for his young fans and did not want them getting hooked on cigarettes and having his name associated with ATC. According to his granddaughter Blair, "He loved children. He wanted to teach kids good sportsmanship. When it came time for that card to come out, it wasn't that he wasn't paid. He didn't want kids to have to buy tobacco to get his card."

Another supporting fact was that Wagner's manager, Fred Clarke, and Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss both hated cigarettes. Dreyfuss actually passed on signing Tris Speaker, a future Hall of Famer, early in his career because Speaker was a smoker. It therefore seems likely that Wagner would not want to be associated with the tobacco industry.

Theory #2 - Compensation From ATC

Others have speculated that ATC did not offer Honus Wagner enough money and he refused to go ahead with the card production. The theory has its flaws, however, as Wagner sent a check to the ATC representative, John Gruber, for $10, a substantial amount of money at the time, to compensate Gruber for the fee ATC would have paid him if Wagner agreed to create the card. Pundits ask why would Wagner have sent Gruber the money if he was holding out for more? Gruber, incidentally, never cashed the check and, instead, saved and framed it.

Whatever the reason for Wagner refusing to cooperate with ATC, the card certainly would not have been as valuable if it has been put into full production. The limited number printed combined with the popularity of Honus Wagner and the story behind the ATC / Wagner battle have made it the most expensive baseball card in history.

New Honus Wagner Blog Header

2008-04-13T12:09:00.004-04:00

I'm pleased to launch a new header picture for the Honus Wagner Blog!

When you look at your website long enough things start to bother you. For me it was the header picture. While the first header served its purpose I found that the main picture on the right made Honus Wagner look too old and tired. The background I also found to be uninspiring so both have been replaced!

I hope you enjoy the re-design!

How Good Was Honus Wagner Compared To Today's Players?

2008-04-06T22:42:00.006-04:00

Professional baseball has been with us for over a century and Honus Wagner was one of the sport's earliest stars. But how good was he compared to the players in today's game? How can you compare players from one generation to the next?

Bill James, one of baseball's most famous historians, recently came up with a framework for measuring the effectiveness of players from different eras in his book "The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract." (As a side note Bill James was named to TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People list in 2006 for the work that he did). To rank the greatest baseball players of all time James used two key ratings: Runs Created and Win Shares.

Runs Created

Bill James maintains that a batter's job is not to get hits but to create runs. You could get all the hits you want but if they are not translating into runs for your team, does it matter? His argument is that the job of the batter is to generate runs which is how a hitter's value should be measured. The formula to figure out how many runs are created by each batter is:

(Hits + Walks) x (Total Bases) / (At Bats + Walks)

Win Shares

Bill James also create the Win Shares system which assigns a numerical figure which represents the value that a player brings to his team in any given season. It is a more complicated formula that looks at the number of wins that a single player is responsible for bringing to his team. In other words, if Honus Wagner were replaced with a league average shortstop, how many fewer wins would Pittsburgh have had?

How Does Honus Wagner Fare?

According to career Win Shares, the top 10 list are:

Babe Ruth - 758
Ty Cobb - 726
Honus Wagner - 655
Henry Aaron - 641
Willie Mays - 641
Cy Young - 635
Tris Speaker - 633
Stan Musial - 604
Eddie Collins - 572
Mickey Mantle - 565

If you look at Win Shares over five consecutive seasons, Honus Wagner actually leads the list:

Honus Wagner - 1904-1908
Babe Ruth - 1920-1924
Ted Williams - 1941-1948
Walter Johnson - 1912-1916
Mickey Mantle - 1954-1958
Ty Cobb - 1907-1911
Tris Speaker - 1912-1916
Willie Mays - 1962-1976
Eddie Collins - 1911-1915
Stan Musial - 1944-1949

The Greatest Players Of All Time

Bill James concluded his book by creating a list of the 100 Greatest Players of All Time. The top 10 were:

Babe Ruth
Honus Wagner
Willie Mays
Oscar Charleston
Ty Cobb
Mickey Mantle
Ted Williams
Walter Johnson
Josh Gibson
Stan Musial

Conclusion

According to Bill James, one of baseball's greatest historians, after years of research and analysis, his conclusion was that Honus Wagner was the second greatest baseball player of all time, behind only the legendary Babe Ruth.

Among baseball fans, the discussion of who is the greatest player of all time is one that will continue for decades to come but if anyone was going to put together an accurate framework for measuring players across different eras, James is the man for the job.

For more information, please refer to Bill James' book "The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract."

1895 - Going Professional - Honus Wagner Biography

2008-03-30T10:51:00.009-04:00

Making His Professional Debut: Steubenville

Honus Wagner made his professional debut on April 20th, 1895 playing for Steubenville. His team won an exhibition game against Holy Ghost College where he batted seventh, had two hits in his five at bats (a single and a double), stole a base, and played right field. Honus won accolades for his play in the outfield. According to The Steubenville Star:

"[A fly ball hit to Honus was] like knocking a ball into a well ... as he is sure death to any fly that goes into his territory."

The season officially started on May 2nd and Honus went one for six with a three-run home run in a 29-11 victory over Canton. He was signed as a pitcher and utility outfielder for Steubenville and spent most of his playing time rotating between the two positions. Honus made his first appearance as a pitcher on May 7th where he went two innings, gave up a walk, and had four strikeouts. According to owner George L. Moreland:

"Wagner ... is a young blood with an arm on him like one of Rusie's and speed as great." (Amos Rusie was one of the National League's most dominant pitchers having won 30 or more games in the last four years and leading the league in strikeouts in four of the the last five years.)

The club, however, was unable to attract a sizeable audience and Moreland decided to move the team to Akron when local businessmen agreed to pay Moreland $500 in cash, buy 50 season tickets, and use Buchtel College (which had multiple train lines and easy access for fans to commute to) if he moved from Steubenville. Akron also had three times the population of Steubenville so it was an easy decision for Moreland to make. The Akron squad played its first game in the new city on May 13th. Honus played left field, batted sixth, and had two doubles and a home run. However, the stay in Akron would be short-lived. On May 18th Moreland could not make payroll and the team disbanded.

The Move To Mansfield

Eager to find new work and continue his life as a professional baseball player, Honus signed with Mansfield and his brother Al, whom he played with in Steubenville-Akron, went to play with Canton. Honus' first game with Mansfield was on May 20th where he was positioned at shortstop. In17 games with Mansfield he had a .387 batting average. Unfortunately, three weeks after his arrival, the Inter State League, which Mansfield and Canton belonged to, folded.

The Move To Adrian

Both Honus and brother Al were again looking for new teams to play for. Al found a spot with Warren, a team in the Iron & Oil League, while Honus went to play with the Adrian Demons of the Michigan State League for $50 per month. He made his debut on June 20th where he played second base and got two hits in a 12-11 victory over Owosso. According to The Adrian Daily Times:

"Some of the ground stops he made were handsome plays in every respect. He is undoubtedly a strong point on our team."

The Move To Warren

Honus went on to bat .386 in 16 games and helped Adrian move into first place. On July 6th, however, Honus felt homesick and left Adrian to sign with his brother Al's team in Warren. He was given a roster spot and was offered $35 per month. He took the deal. According to Honus:

"I got homesick after a few weeks. Most of the boys from home were playing with the Warren team in the old Iron & Oil League, and I joined the same team."

The jump to Warren reunited him with his brother Al as well as other hometown friends like Claude Ritchey and Toots Barrett. Honus went on to play 26 games for Warren, hit over .300, and spent time at the third base and right field positions. His season was cut short, however, after running for a train, falling on a fence, and creating a painful gash in his right arm that required several stitches and took him out of the lineup for three weeks.

A week after Honus returned to the team, the Iron & Oil League began to fall apart as four of the eight teams folded. The league decided that first place Warren should face off against second place Wheeling for a seven game series to determine the overall champion. Honus went 8 for 29 but Wheeling, managed by Edward Barrow, won the series.

An Uncertain Future

Honus' year ended on September 12th when Warren went out of business and payed their players for the last time. In 1895, Honus Wagner played for five different teams in three states and three leagues. He played every position on the field except catcher and he also pitched.

Unsure of what lay ahead for his baseball career, Honus returned home to Carnegie to spend time with his friends and family. He was soon visited by his Steubenville manager George Moreland. Moreland was asked to visit Honus on behalf of William Kerr, the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Kerr wanted Honus to play for him in the 1896 season and offered him a $100 a month contract. Honus later discovered that Kerr wanted to send him to the Kansas City minor league team. Having experienced life on the road in Adrian, Honus decided not to sign as he wished to stay with a team that was close to home. According to Honus:

"I'd much rather stay here at home with my dogs and go hunting than to go way out there and be lost. Unless I went to Kansas City, Mr. Kerr didn't want me. So that ended that. I went home and hunted and fished some more."

With his baseball future in question, Honus returned his life of hunting and fishing, hoping a new opportunity would present itself for the next season.

Other T206 Honus Wagner Cards

2008-03-02T12:52:00.005-05:00

While the Gretzky T206 is the most famous Honus Wagner card because of the superb condition that it is in, there are another 50 or 60 Wagner T206s in existence which are also highly coveted by collectors.

How much are they worth? Here are three examples from recent sales of PSA 1 and PSA 2 graded cards.

PSA 1:

In 2005 a PSA 1 Wagner T206 sold for $110,000

PSA 2:

In 2005 a PSA 2 Wagner T206 sold for $237,000
In 2000 a PSA 2 Wagner T206 sold for $75,000

W Is For Wagner - The Line-Up For Yesterday

2008-02-24T14:00:00.007-05:00

Ogden Nash was an American poet who the New York Times called one of the country's best known producers of poetry. In 1949 he produced a poem called "The Line-Up For Yesterday" which was published in Sport Magazine.

In the poem, Nash created a list of the all time great baseball players and used one name for each letter of the alphabet. Honus Wagner made the list for W:

W is for Wagner,
The bowlegged beauty;
Short was closed to all traffic
With Honus on duty.

Here is the complete poem:

A is for Alex,
The great Alexander;
More Goose eggs he pitched
Than a popular gander.

B is for Bresnahan,
Back of the plate;
The Cubs were his love,
and McGraw his hate.

C is for Cobb,
Who grew spikes and not corn,
And made all the basemen
Wish they weren't born.

D is for Dean,
The grammatical Diz,
When they asked, Who's the tops?
Said correctly, I is.

E is for Evers,
His jaw in advance;
Never afraid
To Tinker with Chance.

F is for Fordham
And Frankie and Frisch;
I wish he were back
With the Giants, I wish.

G is for Gehrig,
The Pride of the Stadium;
His record pure gold,
His courage, pure radium.

H is for Hornsby;
When pitching to Rog,
The pitcher would pitch,
Then the pitcher would dodge.

I is for Me,
Not a hard-hitting man,
But an outstanding all-time
Incurable fan.

J is for Johnson
The Big Train in his prime
Was so fast he could throw
Three strikes at a time.

K is for Keeler,
As fresh as green paint,
The fastest and mostest
To hit where they ain't.

L is for Lajoie
Whom Clevelanders love,
Napolean himself,
With glue in his glove.

M is for Matty,
Who carried a charm
In the form of an extra
brain in his arm.

N is for Newsom,
Bobo's favorite kin.
You ask how he's here,
He talked himself in.

O is for Ott,
Of the restless right foot.
When he leaned on the pellet,
The pellet stayed put.

P is for Plank,
The arm of the A's;
When he tangled with Matty
Games lasted for days.

Q is for Don Quixote,
Cornelius Mack;
Neither Yankees nor years
Can halt his attack.

R is for Ruth,
To tell you the truth,
There's just no more to be said,
Just R is for Ruth.

S is for Speaker,
Swift center-field tender,
When the ball saw him coming,
It yelled, "I surrender."

T is for Terry,
The Giant from Memphis
Whose .400 average
You can't overemphis.

U would be 'Ubell,
if Carl were a cockney;
We say Hubbell and Baseball
Like Football and Rockne.

V is for Vance,
The Dodger's very own Dazzy;
None of his rivals
Could throw as fast as he.

W is for Wagner,
The bowlegged beauty;
Short was closed to all traffic
With Honus on duty.

X is the first,
of two x's in Foxx
Who was right behind Ruth
with his powerful soxx.

Y is for Young,
The magnificent Cy;
People battled against him,
But I never knew why.

Z is for Zenith,
The summit of fame.
These men are up there.
These men are the game.

Growing Up - Honus Wagner Biography

2008-02-17T12:19:00.012-05:00

Growing Up

Honus Wagner was born on February 24, 1874 in Chartiers, Pennsylvania to parents Peter and Katharina Wagner who had come to America from Prussia in 1866 in search of a better life and more opportunities. Peter found work in the coal mines while Katharina became a house cleaner. They had nine children, six of whom survived (five boys, one girl, Honus was the fourth child) and were given German names with English equivalents. Born Johannes (John) Peter, his family called him by a shortened version of his name, Hans or Honus. The name stuck and he would forever be remembered as Honus Wagner.

While his parents spoke English with a heavy accent and used German in the home, Honus excelled at the language and considered himself to be American. He went to school at his local church and since there were no local schools that taught children after the age of 11, Honus did what most of the local boys did and at 12 years of age - he went to work.

Honus joined his father and older brothers in the coal mines. The minimum age allowed by law at the time for working in the mines was 12 which allowed Honus to earn an income. Reflecting on his days in the mines, Honus later said "It was hard work, but good exercise." The work in the mines would also later be credited with giving Honus such a large and muscular frame.

Baseball

When the Wagner boys weren't working they played baseball. They threw a ball around whenever they could get the time to and weekend pickup games with the neighborhood kids became a tradition. Honus surprised everyone with his tremendous speed despite having bowed legs and an awkward body.

At the time, baseball was not the established sport it is today. It was often violent and seen as an uncivilized game. Honus and his two older brothers, Al and Luke, however excelled in the game. They all began to play competitively on local teams and Al recommended that Honus learn to play every position, including pitching, so that he would always have a spot on a team. His versatility would later make him an invaluable asset to his professional teams.

Bets were often placed on the games and the young Honus could make up to five dollars on a pair of games. Not wanting to miss out on a money making opportunity, the brothers would often assume each others identities and fill in for each other if one of them could not make a game with their respective teams.

In 1889, at the age of 15, Honus began hanging around older brother Al's sandlot team which played in the Allegheny County League. He started off being known as Al's little brother and was given the duties of carrying the equipment for the players. He would go on to play with the team and become a valuable on-field member.

In 1890 Honus joined St. Luke's, prominent local Catholic team and later the Carnegie Athletic Club, both in the Allegheny County League. Honus would later recall "I had as much fun in the Allegheny County League as a kid in my teens as I had in my 19 years of big league stardom. All I lived for was baseball. I played from the end of March until the end of October."

Honus and Al Wagner played again together in 1893 when they joined the Mansfield Indians in the Allegheny County League. The Indians were in last place and the brothers did not get regular starting positions but it did give them an opportunity for greater exposure in the baseball community. However, the league did not allow contracts with players - money was made through gambling provided that your team won.

Becoming A Professional

In 1894, George L. Moreland, a Pittsburgh based sportswriter wanted to create a new minor league consisting of teams from Ohio and West Virginia in time for the 1895 season. He also wanted to own and manage his own team in the league based in Steubenville, Ohio.

One of the first players Moreland wanted on his team was Al Wagner. Al managed to convince his new boss that his brother Honus would make a good pitcher on the team and could fill in as a substitute for other position players. Moreland agreed and on February 10, 1895 signed Honus to a $35 a month contract. Honus made his debut on April 20th and rotated throughout the season between being a pitcher and playing in the outfield.

Honus was now 21 years old and had a late entry to professional baseball compared to most of the other rising stars in the sport. He was, however, five feet, eleven inches and weighed 185 pounds - a giant of a man for the times and still not fully grown. More importantly, he was ready to make his mark and show the baseball world what he could do.

Honus Wagner T206 Price And Owner History

2008-02-10T15:22:00.001-05:00

The Honus Wagner T206 is considered by collectors to be the "Holy Grail" or "Mona Lisa" of all baseball cards. There are only 50 to 60 believed to be in existence and the card has broken a number of records including:

- First baseball card to be professional graded by the PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator). The card shown on the left is marked #00000001

- First baseball card to sell for over $1 million

- Highest priced baseball card available, currently valued at $2.8 million

Here is a history as to how the Honus Wagner T206 PSA 8 came to be worth so much money.

Summary: Honus Wagner T206 Price History

1930: $50
1985: $25,000
1987: $110,000
1991: $451,000
1995: $500,000
1996: $641,500
2000: $1,265,000
Feb 2007: $2.35 Mil
Sept 2007: $2.80 Mil

1930s

In the 1930s, according to baseball card catalogues, the Honus Wagner T206 cards were listed at a value of $50. Other T206 cards were valued at 35 cents making the Wagners a premium. Nobody, however, could have predicted that the card would come to be worth millions over 70 years later.

Alan Ray and Bill Mastro

The Honus Wagner T206 made its first appearance in the modern world of sports card collecting in 1985 when Alan Ray, a small time card collector, went to see Bob Sevchuk who owned a New York based sports memorabilia store where Ray was a regular customer.

Ray was hoping to sell his Honus Wagner T206 for $25,000 to Sevchuk. Bill Mastro, another sports memorabilia store owner and future founder of Mastro Auctions, caught wind of the card's availability and expressed an interest in buying it. He drove to Sevchuk's store and agreed to buy the card from Ray but only if he threw in the other 50 to 75 T206's that Ray had brought along as well. Ray made the deal, later saying "I had a money situation. I had to sell the card"

The origins of the card still remain a mystery and have never been disclosed. Ray has only said in 2001 that he received the card from a relative, whose name he did not divulge.

Jim Copeland

In 1987, Mastro contacted Jim Copeland, a sporting goods chain owner in California, and sold him the card for $110,000, realizing a $85,000 profit in under two years. "I called from the airport in California," Mastro says, "and ordered a Mercedes Benz."

The sale sparked a renewed interest in baseball card collecting and created an incentive for people to find and sell their cards from the T206 series.

Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall

In 1991, Copeland decided that he wanted to sell his collection of 873 pieces in a single sale. He contacted Mastro to help him sell the card. Mastro contacted Sotheby's, one of the most well known auction house in the world, to arrange the sale. Over 800 collectors showed up and the Honus Wagner T206 was expected to go for $114,000 according to pre-auction estimates.

Within minutes of opening the card soared past $228,000, double the original pre-auction estimate. There were three bidders for the card: Mike Gidwitz, Mark Friedland, and an unknown phone bidder. Gidwitz dropped out when the price hit $300,000. Friedland pursued and found that with each successive price increase he made, the anonymous phone bidder would further raise $5,000 or $10,000. Friedland finally called it off when the price hit $410,000. Sotheby's took at 10% buyer's premium on the value of the card so the final sales price was $451,000.

It was later discovered that the anonymous phone bidder was none other than NHL hockey great Wayne Gretzky who bid on the card with the financial support of Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall. Mastro continued to work for Sotheby's for the next 5 years to facilitate the sale of expensive sports memorabilia and thereby establishing himself as the expert in the industry.

Gretzky, not known at the time for being a card collector, thought it would make a good investment and that "the market would remain strong. Still, my dad told me I was an idiot for paying $450,000 for a baseball card." According to his co-owner McNall, "If you buy something that is absolutely the best in the world, you'd be okay because there is always another buyer for something at the top end."

The record-setting purchase made headlines and the card quickly became known as the "Gretzky T206 Wagner." To validate its authenticity, the Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA) chose the card to be the first that it would grade. The card received a PSA 8 - NM-MT (near mind to mint), the highest grade so far awarded to a Honus Wagner T206 baseball card. PSA President David Hall called it "superb" and a "fantastic card in every way."

Wal-Mart and Patricia Gibbs

Shortly after the PSA graded the Honus Wagner T206, Bruce McNall became the subject of a federal investigation for fraud. He was later charged in 1994 for defrauding 6 banks of more than $236 million. With his partner off to a start a 70 month prison sentence, Gretzky decided to buy him out for his share and put the card back on the auction block.

In 1995, the Honus Wagner T206 was sold to Wal-Mart and Treat Entertainment for $500,000. The companies wanted to use the card as the top prize in a promotional campaign to raise awareness about the baseball card products that Wal-Mart was selling. As part of the contest, the card traveled all across the United States and on February 24th, 1996, the 122nd anniversary of Honus Wagner's birthday, the T206 prize winner was chosen in a random draw made by Brooks Robinson on an episode of CNN's Larry King Weekend. The winner was Patricia Gibbs, a postal worker from Florida.

Gibbs could not afford the taxes on the Honus Wagner T206 so she put it up for auction with Christie's, another New York auction house. Wal-Mart benefited heavily from the exposure and sold more than 30 million packs of baseball cards in a matter of months.

Michael Gidwitz

The Honus Wagner T206 went to auction in 1996 and the top bidder was a familiar name, Michael Gidwitz, one of the men who battled Wayne Gretzky for the card in 1991 and lost. Bill Mastro was also bidding for the card but lost out this time to Gidwitz. According to Mastro, "No one ever wants to separate themselves from the crown jewel of the hobby."

Gidwitz, a Chicago based collector, had to pay a significant premium over the $451,000 1991 price tag. He ended up spending $641,500 to acquire the card in 1996.

Brian Seigel, Anonymous, Anonymous

After owning the Honus Wagner T206 for four years, Gidwitz decided it was time to sell. Instead of approaching a brand name auction house, he used technology to his advantage and made a deal with the largest online auction company in the world: eBay.

Gidwitz partnered with Robert Edwards Auctions, a division of MastroNet, to create a 10 day auction for the card. Prospective bidders had to wire a $100,000 deposit to iEscrow.com to be pre-approved to enter the auction. According to Robert Lifson, director of Robert Edwards Auctions, "I was thinking how could I leverage the publicity value of this card. I thought it would be really something if I approached eBay with this idea."

On July 15th of 2000 the Honus Wagner T206 was sold on eBay to Brian Seigel, a California collector for a record $1,265,000. This was a the first time that a baseball card had sold for more than $1 million. At the time Seigel said "Some day I'll sell it. I guess when I get tired of it. But this was not a business move. I am a collector."

In February 2007, however, Seigel decided that it was indeed time to move on and the card was sold again, this time to an anonymous California buyer via SCP Auctions for $2,350,000. According to SCP President David Kohler, the new owner said "'Let's let the world know and have a news conference, but I don't want my name out there.' We have to respect that."

Finally, on September 6th, 2007 the Honus Wagner T206 it was sold most recently to another anonymous collector for a record $2,800,000. It is rumored that the card will be put on display at a number of upcoming conventions and events.

Who the owner is and when the famed card will next go on sale is anyone's guess. Only time will tell how high the price Honus Wagner T206 can go.

October 2008 Update: It was recently revealed that the current owner of the famous Honus Wagner T206 is E.G. "Ken" Kendrick, managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team. Kendrick is a veteran collector and is believed to be creating a sports museum at Chase Field where the card will be put on display.

Honus Wagner Videos

2008-02-03T15:21:00.000-05:00

It's hard to find video footage of Honus Wagner so I've put together a listing of the various videos that I have come across online:

YouTube: A 31 second montage of Honus Wagner pictures put to music:

YouTube: A 30 second DHL / MLB commercial featuring a talking Honus Wagner T206 baseball card:

YouTube: A 1:28 news story about the Honus Wagner T206 baseball card:

YouTube: A 2:57 interview with former pitcher Lefty Honce. He talks about his experiences with Honus Wagner at the 1:53 mark:

Baseball Hall of Fame: The best of all of them is the Baseball Hall of Fame video (unfortunately it can't be embedded!)

Honus Wagner Named Best Shortstop Of All Time

2008-01-27T16:22:00.000-05:00

The Bleacher Report recently put out a report about the greatest shortstops of all time. It looked at the following players to determine who was #1: Lou Boudreau, Barry Larkin, Joe Cronin, Honus Wagner, Arky Vaughan, Ernie Banks, Cal Ripken Jr. Ozzie Smith, Luke Appling, Bill Dahlen, and Gorgeous George Davis.

How can you compare such talented players across decades of baseball? The authors used the Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) method. In a nutshell, WARP looks at how many additional games a team would win having a certain player on board instead of an average Triple-A "replacement player".

WARP scores look at three main factors: Batting Runs Above Replacement, Fielding Runs Above Replacement, and Pitching Runs Above Replacement. The three numbers are added and then divided by the number of runs per win that season.

A regular season player will average a WARP of 3 to 5 over a season which means that the player is responsible for 3 to 5 more wins than the team would win if they used a replacement player at his position. An all-star player would typically have a WARP over 7 while a MVP candidate might have a WARP over 10. Hall of Fame players usually have career WARPs of over 100.

So how do the shortstops compare?

Here's how they score according to their career WARP numbers:

Honus Wagner (240)
Bill Dahlen (180)
George Davis (170)
Arky Vaughan (134)
Luke Appling (130)
Cal Ripken Jr. (127)
Ozzie Smith (127)
Joe Cronin (120)
Ernie Banks (115)
Barry Larkin (110)
Lou Boudreau (108)

Here is what The Bleacher Report had to say about Honus Wagner and his clear margin of victory:

Honus Wagner is very clearly the greatest shortstop in the annals of the game, and quite possibly (Babe Ruth included), the most dominant performer at any point in baseball history. Looking at the above numbers, it is shocking the level to which Wagner exceeds the other shortstops on this list. He was worth 240 wins-above- replacement-player in his career, none of the others were within 60 points of that. His 5- year peak exceeded the 2nd place finisher by 10, 3rd place by almost 20. His 10-year totals were even more impressive. His 1908 season may be the best ever, where he put up the following line:

AB-568 H-201 D-39 T-19 HR-10 R-100 RBI-109 SB-53 BB-54 .354/.415/.542/.957

This looks pretty spectacular, and then you realize that 1908 was the lowest offensive point of the twentieth century, the deadest of the dead ball seasons. Baseball Prospectus translates this 1908 season into contemporary numbers. Prepare to be blown away, and remember, he is also one of the game's 3-4 greatest defensive shortstops.

AB-609 H-226 D-54 T-14 HR-57 BB-70 SB-54 R-150 RBI-177 .371/.440.787/1.227

From a gold glove shortstop, this is beyond belief. This season was worth 19 wins above a replacement player. This means that, given an average team that would finish the season with a record of 81-81, was starting a replacement level shortstop, replaced that shortstop with Wagner, and the team could expect to win 100 games.

Following is Wagner's career line, as translated through Baseball Prospectus:

H-3640 D-855 T-138 HR-637 BB-1174 SB-640 R-2060 RBI-2257 .324/.394/.595

It's like combining Albert Pujols and Ozzie Smith.