It might be asked why an obscure pitcher who appeared in only 12 major league games in 1948 with the St Louis Browns and died in 1989 at the ripe old age of 63 years old would be such a difficult autograph to find but every autograph tells a story and few are as bizarre of that of Ralph "Blackie" Schwamb.
As a promising athlete Schwamb saw baseball as a means to an end , a life of attention and celebrity, of money , booze and broads what he received instead was a prison sentence for murder for hire. Author Eric Stone wrote a book about it "Wrong Side of the Wall".
In addition to playing baseball "Blackie" was also friends with reputed west coast gangster Mickey Cohen , and shortly after fulfilling his obligation to the Browns he had another debt to pay ...This time to Cohen.
Schwamb and an accomplice were jailed for the brutal murder of a Long Beach, Calif., doctor in 1949.
After his release from prison and a brief attempt to play ball again he disappeared and probably would have never been found had it not been for author Stone who discovered Schwamb a broken-down old man he encountered living in a metal-slab-sided house in Lancaster, Calif. For four days Schwamb told Stone colorful yarns about his tragic life But on the fifth day, when Stone confronted Schwamb about the night he beat Dr. Donald Buge. to death with his fists, Schwamb replied "Get the hell out of here before I F*** you up."
A rare autograph is pictured here , without question one of baseball's most interesting if not morbid characters.
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