[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by vintagesportscollector

Carlton, you're a lucky man!! ...I'm impressed.

Thanks Joe the Lord has blessed me...

It seems like I saw one of those statues ones or twice 25 or so years ago....maybe it was in one of those straight sale SCD ads Leland’s used to run in the early 1990's. Without examining in person there's no way to know for sure if it's from the period...it's possible it's real....but I sort of doubt it....It's either an original 13" version which I'm not sure exists...or a copy of the original work.

The original work was sculpted by a deaf sculptor named Douglas Tilden...a totally California native...born and raised in Chico CA. Tilden started sculpting in Berkeley Calif in the late 1880's...later going to Paris for formal training...."The Baseball Player"...originally called "The National Game "...was Tilden's first major work done in 1889 in Paris...later he produced many public monuments in San Francisco...

The Baseball Hall of Fame has a very rare example...I believe theirs is about a 36" height...and I seem to recall there's another example of that size in a private collection...my copy is about 20" tall...But the greatest example is the heroic sized one in Golden Gate Park San Francisco.

I'm gonna stop right here because this is starting to cut into a major story I've been planning the last couple months that involves Tilden...stay tuned.

The real coincidence though is that I know the seller and saw and talked to him at a show in Sacramento last Sunday...and he didn't mention he was auctioning this piece...and he knows that's exactly the kind of thing I collect...If he'd have mentioned it I'd have driven the hour to his house to examine it!!! very odd...