Description
The 1945 Chicago Cubs Official Program, signed by 12 players and Hall of Fame manager Charlie Grimm.
Includes a handwritten letter from Pitcher Hank Wyse, regarding the signed program and discussing the pending World Series. Little did Wyse know, but he would be the last Cubs’ pitcher to appear in a World Series game for 71 years, until the 2016 World Series championship season.
Octavo, [14]. Printed wrappers, bound with staples along the spine. Previously folded along the center line. Box scores completed in pencil for the September 16, 1945 game versus the Brooklyn Dodgers, with the Cubs winning 4-2. Includes a handwritten letter from Hank Wyse to North Dakota Attorney General Alvin C. Strutz, taking him up on his offer to pheasant hunt “…after the World Series.” A return Western Union telegraph reads: “You can win today and tomorrow then we’ll hunt pheasants.”
This program is signed by the following players: Hank Wyse (Pitcher), Paul Derringer (Pitcher), Stan Hack (Third Base), Andy Pafko (Center Field), Heinz Becker (First Base), Roy Hughes (Shortstop), Bill Schuster (Shortstop), Claude Passeau (Pitcher), Bill Nicholson (Outfielder), Peanuts Lowrey (Outfielder), Roy Johnson (Coach), Don “Pep” Johnson (Second Base), Mickey Livingston (Catcher), Charlie Grimm (Hall of Fame Manager).
The Chicago Cubs won the National League pennant in 1945 under manager Charlie Grimm and faced the Detroit Tigers in the 1945 World Series, the club’s last World Series appearance until 2016. The team was led by pitcher Hank Wyse, who won 22 games during the regular season. The Cubs lost the Series in seven games, but the season became permanently associated with the “Curse of the Billy Goat,” a superstition said to have originated after tavern owner Billy Sianis and his goat were asked to leave Game 4 at Wrigley Field.
