A newly authenticated photo of Jackie Robinson–the same image used to create his 1953 Topps baseball card–is on the market for the first time.
The 7 3/4″ x 9 3/4″ image of Robinson, posing in his Brooklyn Dodgers uniform, has a Type 1 rating from PSA. Bidding has passed $6,000 for the photo, which is one of only a small number of surviving original examples.
It’s among more than 600 vintage photos in RMY Auctions’ Spring Collectors Auction, but not the only one that mirrors an old baseball card. There’s a photo of Rogers Hornsby that collectors of the 1933 Goudey set. Hornsby is shown in the front of the dugout as manager of the St. Louis Browns. The photo has the original editorial note attached to the back from some long ago newspaper’s photo department.
Also on the block is a 1921 wirephoto showing Babe Ruth signing a baseball for Irvin Cobb, a famous humorist and author. Taken before the 5th game of the World Series that saw the Yankees win their first title, the 6 x 7 3/4″ photo carries the original full paper caption on the back.
Cobb, writing for the New York Times, was in attendance for the series and famously wrote that “1921 has wiped the shield of our hemispheric pastime clean of the befouling smear which [the Black Sox Scandal of] 1919 put upon it.” Cobb was the author of 60 books and over 300 short stories, many of them drawing on his early life in Paducah, KY where he is still known as the “Duke of Paducah.”
Mickey Mantle made his major league debut 62 years ago this week and the auction offers a Type 1 photo of Mantle posing with Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams on Opening Day, 1951, when he took the field for the first game of what would become a Hall of Fame career. The 6×9 image is from the original negative.
Among the more modern listings is a 1986 image of Bo Jackson as he picks up his first hit as a professional baseball player.
Taken by Sporting News photographer Richard Pilling, the 8×10 photo captures Jackson as he begins his baseball career with the Memphis Chicks.
The auction runs through April 29 at RMYAuctions.com.
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