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Lou Gehrig Autographed Items

A couple of interesting autographed items have popped up from Lou Gehrig.

Howard Henderson is a 92-year-old who was 12 when he was given a baseball glove signed by Gehrig.

He had met a number of big name folks, including Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante. His father Ray was a songwriter, and apparently Gehrig’s wife Eleanor wanted to write songs. The boy went outside to play catch while the songwriters talked shop. Gehrig saw the glove the kid was using and promised to bring a better one for him the next time he came to visit the family in their New York home.

Howard said that when he arrived the next time they played catch, and he handed him the new glove saying, “This one is already broken in. I used it for part of the season.”

Lucky for him, he was a lefty, just like Gehrig.

Of course, all of us collectors immediately wonder – was he told to say this now, to increase the value? After all, any game used equipment from Gehrig is extremely rare and is worth so much more than a regular glove a kid may have had signed (the auction house tried to find photos of Gehrig with the glove and couldn’t).

The autographed mitt is inscribed “To Howard. I hope you have much luck with this glove as I did. Lou Gehrig.”

It’s going to be auctioned July 15^th at Hunt Auctions, and they’re expecting it to sell between $200,000 and $300,000. I expect it to get over $500,000.

While everyone was enjoying the 4^th of July celebrations (especially Howard, who turned 92 on that day), it was once one of the saddest days in baseball. That’s when Gehrig gave his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium, calling himself “the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.”

If you have a ticket from that game, it’s valuable. It’s hardly as valuable as the one that Heritage Auctions is selling. There were 60,000 tickets sold to that game, and many of those probably exist in attics somewhere. Well, a collector is selling the signed ticket he has from that game.

It’s expected to bring over $100,000 and it’s safe to say – it will be the most valuable baseball ticket stub ever. Unless somebody can produced a signed Jackie Robinson from his debut game, or a 1969 World Series ticket signed by some of the Mets top players – this is the Holy Grail of signed tickets.

Tags: 1969 Mets, Heritage Auctions, Hunt Auctions, Jackie Robinson, Lou Gehrig

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Comment by Dom Vito Castiglione on July 8, 2014 at 4:48am: Both amazing pieces & it will be something special if they reach those prices. And to think, Coach's Corner recently sold a snow while single signed Gehrig ball for $388!

Comment by Null on July 8, 2014 at 6:21am: Legendary stuff

Comment by terrier8HOF on July 9, 2014 at 6:10am: especially if they are truly authentic

Comment by Dane on July 15, 2014 at 4:40am: The cynic in me questions the glove, even though the fan in me hopes it's real.

Ray Henderson was a relatively big name in pop musicals (Broadway), so it's odd that no one mentioned a connection to Gehrig prior to the 75th anniversary of his death. I would think the auction houses would, at a minimal, verify the validity of the back-story. Beyond that, odd that it ended up in the Hunt Auction instead of the Heritage Platinum Night or Goldin Ruth Auction. Seems to me that either Chris and Ken both dropped the ball or both companies had questions about the validity of the item.

Does anyone know if the glove has been authenticated by MEARS or PSA?

Comment by Mike Shepherd on July 17, 2014 at 11:41am: What type of a writing instrument was used to sign the glove? It appears to be signed in gold ink with a thin tip.

Comment by Josh Board on July 25, 2014 at 10:58pm: Yeah, the signature in gold ink looked odd to me, for that time period.

I don't think it's so odd that Ray Hendersons name never came up in mention to Gehrig. I've seen so many cases, where there's a bio or story on somebody, and a person that is a big part of their life is never mentioned. And it didn't sound like they were the best of friends or anything.

Comment by Erich Jerozal on July 26, 2014 at 8:44am: I read the story about that signed glove. I read that Gehrig used an hot pen or something to brand the glove. So basically he burned his signature not signed.