(LOT 19)
1909-11 T206 Nap Lajoie Throwing Piedmont 150/25 PSA 9 MINT – POP 1 Piedmont Cigarettes & the Highest Graded Example for ALL AD Backs!
MINT T206 NAP!!! One of the most popular T206 Hall of Famers is the legendary Napoleon Lajoie, with his sanctified Piedmont 150 Subjects Throwing subject presented here in an extraordinary PSA 9 MINT holder. As a bona fide POP 1 Piedmont Cigarettes example, it stands alone at the top of the charts versus all of its inferior Piedmont peers. Furthermore, only four other PSA 9s for ALL ad backs exist at this hallowed tier, three of which reflect Sovereign backs with the remaining one depicting a Sweet Caporal verso. One of our National Pastime's greatest all-time second basemen, Lajoie stands right alongside Rogers Hornsby and Eddie Collins when any discussion arises of who reigns supreme at the middle-infield position, and his amazing .426 batting average (posted in 1901), still stands as a Major League record.
That 1901 campaign would see the Lajoie capture what would be the modern-day equivalent of baseball's Triple Crown, with the slick-fielding second baseman adding a league-leading 14 round-trippers and 125 RBIs to his aforementioned .426 average. Known as "Larry" or "the Frenchman", the immortal Lajoie posted a sensational .338 lifetime batting average via his 3,248 safeties. Throughout his 21-year career with Philadelphia and Cleveland, he paced the Junior Circuit in batting average five times, with his .383 mark in 1910 sharing the league lead with the great Ty Cobb.
Along with Mathewson and Wagner, he was one of the most beloved players in the game, worshiped by an adoring Cleveland fan base, and it comes as little surprise that the Indians/Guardians were originally dubbed the "Cleveland Naps" due to Lajoie's shortened Napoleon name. Synonymous with his premier statistical standing is this premier PSA 9 offering, which portrays awe-inspiring aesthetics and appears as if it has just been pulled out of a Piedmont Cigarettes pack. The classic Lajoie throwing pose exhibits crystal clear clarity, vibrant facial hues, and a robust array of gray hues emanating from his uniform, with a spectacular yellow/orange/green hued background completing this illustration. Near-perfect centering between four super bright white borders only reflects a slight favoritism towards the right edge, and the surfaces are virtually pristine.
One of the finest Lajoie images you will ever come across, its additional supporting attributes include blistering sharp corner tips, fine edging, and an extremely bold midnight blue Piedmont150 Subjects/Factory 25 verso. It's no secret that high-grade T206 Hall of Famers are achieving stratospheric price tags each and every day, with another PSA 9 Lajoie Throwing subject fetching $55K over two years ago. Stubbornly defying the past 114 years, it has incredibly retained nearly all of its original factory-issued qualities, projecting itself as any modern-day pack-fresh card. With its extraordinary 9 MINT assessment, it's a simple final bid away from granting the sophisticated collector bragging rights for years to come, anxiously awaiting a new home in one of the most prestigious PSA Registered T206 sets extant!
MIN BID $10,000
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