1944 St. Louis Cardinals Team-Signed Baseball World Series Champs (17) – COA JSA

The 1944 World Series was an all-St. Louis World Series, matching the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns at Sportsman’s Park. It marked the third time in World Series history in which both teams had the same home field (the others being the 1921 and 1922 Series, both played at the Polo Grounds in New York City). It would be 76 years before another World Series had all of its games played in a single ballpark: the 2020 Series used Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas as a neutral site due to health concerns regarding the pandemic.

Presented is an official National League Peerless/Banner baseball autographed by (17) members of the victorious St. Louis Cardinals team. The toned ball was signed in black steel tip fountain pen (common of the era) and the autographs have variations in strength/quality (see photos). Five highlight signatures include Pepper Martin, Mike Gonzalez, Blix Donnelly, Mort Cooper and Walker Cooper. Other signers include: George Fallon, Debs Garms, Ted Wilks, Max Lanier, Danny Litwhiler, Al Jurisich, Harry Gumbert, Freddy Schmidt, Whitey Kurowski, Red Munger, Freddy Schmidt and others.

Authentication: JSA Full Letter

This ball is from one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of autographed baseballs in the world. Altogether they were easily displayable in custom shelf form and alphabetically displayed nonetheless. The choice of medium was visually easy for the encyclopedic collector who put these together. It took several decades to amass these rare autographs of the most prominent entertainers, historical figures, and sports players.  It proved quite difficult to acquire autographs of non-ballplayers on such an odd object (a baseball) but diligence proved otherwise and that it’s possible. So, now with the collection complete and his shelves empty there’s only one thing left to do….bid on this item and start the challenge to see how far you can take it.