Thirty Years and Thirty K, but
 

I finally reunited the original Harry Wright 1889-90 scorebook for my shelf. This message is for fellow scorecard collectors who may recall that from time to time I have tactfully advertised for the 1890-No. 2 booklet or any information about without success. My interest in this particular book stems from the fact that Sam Thompson joined the Phillies in 1889.
Readers may know that the Harry Wright scorebooks were first known to the hobby in the collection of Bruce Foster who as early as 1958 would bring them to spring training and proudly display them to the players and to the press. Foster died in 1989 and his collection dispersed. Barry Sloate and Mark Rucker were two of the principals involved. The 1889-90 book was broken up into four parts. My acquisitions --

1889 full season. pre-season through post-season exhibition games
purchased from Lew Lipsett I think about 1990.
1890 No. 1 pre-season. acquired 1991 Lelands
1890 No. 3 April 29 - May 21 1890. acquired 1998 Sloate
1890 No. 2 March 27-April 28 1890 acquired 2021 Heritage

Net54 contributors frequently overwork the expression "grail," but for me the recent acquisition of 1890 No. 2 comes pretty close. I have looked for it for thirty years, and of course, it is a unique item.

Glad to hear you have put the scorebook back together. Amazing and well done.
I know it gave collectors the ability to acquire a piece of history, but those scorebooks should have been kept together, at least by years.

Wow...congrats Keith. That is freaking awesome.

That is just wonderful. Congratulations!

Fantastic!

Congrats Keith! Excellent acquisition & mission accomplished. :cool:

Harry Wright Scorebook Provenance
 

There are Net54 readers out there who know far more than I about the Harry Wright scorebooks, but let's consider. Barry Sloate recalls that there were exactly ten scorebooks in the Foster collection as purchased in 1990.

Boston 1878, 1879, 1889, 1881
Providence 1883
Philadelphia 1884, 1885, 1886, 1888, 1889-90

1982 Providence and 1887 Philadelphia were conspicuously missing.
Purpose of this message is to imply that most of the yearbooks are probably still intact in the collections of old timers in their original bound form. I infer this because I never have seen a great many individual program pages for sale either at auction or on a dealer's table. And when I have, it is usually one that has a full signature in the scorer's box and thus more valuable.

My question is: what is the provenance of Foster's collection? I went to the NYPL a few years ago and asked to see the "ten Harry Wight scorebooks" as listed in their catalogue file. I was immediately escorted to an office where I had to explain "why was I interested." I was then shown a simple file containing exactly ten scorecards, not scorebooks, of roughly the same time frame, but none were scored or had anything about them identifying them with Harry Wright.

Thirty thirty
 

The thrill of the hunt! Perseverance pays off!! Congrats!

Keith, I missed this post until now. What a great accomplishment, glad to see responsible caretakers of these books over the years, deciding against turning any given book into a bunch of singles. Your journey was long but worth it.

I wonder if Sam ever handled the scorebooks ?? :)

Would be fascinating to see some of the earlier books surface as well.

Congrats!

Congratulations Keith!

really really awesome! congratulations!

Wow that is a great story and what collecting is all about

And the fact after all those years you got your Holy Grail is amazing

Congrats and thanks for sharing

This was moved from the memorabilia BST to the regular forum....great stuff

happy for you, putting together a collection of a certain items is a real challenge