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Posted By: Pat

Here are a few programs I just received today in the mail that both have the theme of a pitchers major league debut.

The first is a 1908 New York Highlanders (Yankees) program that I acquired in a trade from a fellow collector. It is from the April 18th game against the Washington Senators. Taking the mound for the Senators that day and making his major league debut was rookie pitcher Sleepy Bill Burns who later would be made infamous in his role in the 1919 Black Sox conspiracy. Program is neatly scored inside for his debut and he is noted on the cover as the starting pitcher.

The second program came from a pair of 1955 Braves programs I found. Upon reviewing the score grid I was able to identify it as a game played on June 24, 1955 versus the Dodgers. Making his major league debut as a relief pitcher is Sandy Koufax. The young rookie was so new to the team; he didnt even appear among the listing of substitute players. The original owner of the program penciled him as among the relief pitchers in the scoring section when he took the mound in the 5th inning for his major league debut. Of interesting note, the original owner of this program, likely a Braves fan and not familiar with this young rookie for the Dodgers who was not printed in the scorecard, wrote his name phonetically as Cofax probably after the announcer at County Stadium introduced him to the crowd when he took the mound and noted his uniform # as 32. The Braves scoring section is also neatly scored correctly showing Hank Aaron hitting his 25th career homerun and Eddie Mathews hitting his career #118. A tremendous historical program I was extremely lucky to find.