Time to pump some life into this great vintage thread!
I'm very excited to have been able to add this fully dated ticket stub to a Smoky Joe Wood 1-hit shutout against the NY Highlanders in his historic 34 win season in 1912.
Smoky Joe led all of baseball in 1912 with 10 shutouts in addition to the 34 wins. In 1913 he started experiencing arm trouble and was never able to return to form. Amazingly, he reinvented himself as a position player later with the Cleveland Indians and retired with a .283 batting average (.366 in 1920!). Certainly this is a testament to his great athleticism.
Wood got his 16th win in the second game of a doubleheader on June 29, 1912.
It's important to note that 1912 also marked the 1st year of historic Fenway Park.
Early vintage baseball tickets with complete dates were scarce prior to the 1930's and very scarce prior to 1920.
In fact, most were not dated with the exception of the very spendy best seats in the house.
Many thanks to net54's David Shakir for making this ticket available.
I've been looking for years to find a nice ticket to Smoky Joe's 1912 Tour de Force season & now I can check that one off my collecting bucket list.
BTW, the stunning photo of Smoky Joe below I do not own, but I love the image and saved it. I seem to recall that Bob Freeman may have posted this a number of years ago. The photo of Joe and Bill Carrigan with their wives I do own & came directly out of Bill Carrigan's estate. Thanks to net54's Rawn for selling this to me a few years ago. I love this image as well & I believe it originates from the 1916 season.