They sat packed away in cardboard boxes and steamer trunks, collecting dust and age. They survived multiple moves and the hot summers and frigid winters in attics in Oklahoma. This week, Warren Spahn’s immense collection of memorabilia has been liberated.
The family of the all-time pitching great, who achieved greatness as a Braves lefty before the franchise’s move to Atlanta, will auction off possessions ranging from his only Cy Young Award to address books and cigarette lighters.
“It was somewhat of a problem for me to properly preserve and take care of these items,” said Greg Spahn, the only child of the Hall of Fame pitcher. “I felt like it would be best served that we offer it to the public where it could be seen and appreciated throughout the country.”
Auspiciously, the auction will commence the same week that the Braves franchise for which he pitched 20 years will begin a series in Milwaukee, where he played as a Brave for 12 of those seasons. The 1957 Cy Young Award, one of more than 400 items that will be put up for bid by Hunt Auctions, is estimated to go for between $75,000 and $125,000. It was the second Cy Young Award presented. There is online bidding at huntauctions.com until July 14. On July 15, the award and the rest of the collection will go on auction in New York as part of All-Star Game festivities.
Company president David Hunt said it’s a “very reasonable expectation” that Spahn’s Cy Young trophy, won at a time when only one pitcher received it annually, could set a record for the highest bid received for a Cy Young. The record is believed to be Whitey Ford’s 1961 Cy Young Award, which went for $141,500, including fees to the auction house. It’s Greg Spahn’s hope that the award, which has been on loan to the Braves museum at Turner Field, will be purchased by someone who will choose to keep it there.
The rest of the items include other awards, game-used bats, hats, cleats and balls, contracts, personal checks and watches. There’s a ball autographed by four of the “Mercury Seven” astronauts that he received on a visit to the NASA space center in Houston in 1965. The collection includes 13 sets of playing cards that belonged to the all-time winningest left-handed pitcher.
Spahn, born in 1921, didn’t throw anything away, his son said.
“He grew up in the Depression, from a very poor family, and he just kept everything,” Greg Spahn said.
The difference between him and others from his generation is that the boxes that cluttered the attics of the family ranch in Hartshorne, Okla., and his son’s home in Broken Arrow, Okla., are worth thousands of dollars. The auction includes a get-well card addressed to him, made notable in that it was signed by 34 Hall of Famers, including Ted Williams, Sandy Koufax, Yogi Berra and Stan Musial.
In going through his father’s possessions, he found “tons” of Christmas cards that date to the 1940s, including some from the families of teammates and Braves greats Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Lew Burdette.
“I’ve still got them,” Greg Spahn said. “I’m my father’s son.”
Spahn’s 363 career wins rank sixth all-time, most among left-handers and the most of any pitcher since 1930. He recorded 382 complete games, with 63 shutouts and two no-hitters. He missed the 1943-45 seasons to serve as a U.S. Army engineer in World War II, during which he earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart in the Battle of the Bulge.
His career ended in 1965, one year before the Braves moved to Atlanta, but he followed the team closely and was particularly fond of Greg Maddux. Spahn was in Atlanta for the unveiling of his statue, right leg kicked high in the air, at Turner Field’s Monument Grove in August 2003, just three months before his death at the age of 82.
Hunt estimated the total value of the memorabilia at “multiple six figures.” Greg Spahn, who has five children, three of whom he has yet to put through college, will keep the proceeds. He said he had had many conversations with his father about what to do with his possessions. This is the first time that he has sold any of his father’s memorabilia.
“I don’t feel like I’ll be sad to let it go,” he said. “I’m just a very appreciative son of what my father was able to accomplish. This is as much honoring him as anything else.”
