NPR: Dealer Says He Doctored Most Valuable Baseball Card Ever Sold.

A judge has rejected a plea agreement from the former head of a sports memorabilia auction house who admitted to using shill bidders to drive up prices and to altering the most valuable baseball card ever sold.

William Mastro of Mastro Auctions admitted to doctoring the 1909 Honus Wagner cigarette card that was once owned by hockey great Wayne Gretzky. The card sold for $2.8 million in 2007.

Once again The Great One shows uncanny instincts.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 1-9-2013

Pittsburgh Gazette Times, January 9, 1913:

Commenting on the report that the Philadelphia Athletics suffer less strikeouts than their rivals, Honus Wagner remarks, “Well, a guy who don’t strike out once in a while ain’t to be trusted.”

Joe Sewell, please pick up the white courtesy phone.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 12-19-2012

Honus Wagner quoted in the Toledo News-Bee, December 19, 1912:

“Jake Beckley...tried to work the old hidden ball trick on me a half dozen times, or that’s what I thought he was trying to do. He would stick the ball under his arm right before my eyes.

“‘Jake,’ I said to him one day, ‘there’s no use trying that old one on me.’ He didn’t pay any attention to what I said, and I grabbed the ball from under his arm and threw it into right field, and then cut loose for second base.

“The second baseman had the ball waiting for me. Jake had used a phoney ball to deceive me.”

Somewhere, Dave Bresnahan is furiously scribbling notes.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 12-10-2012

Pittsburgh Press, December 14, 1912:

[Honus Wagner] has a regular winter program which he carries through every year. It runs something like this: October, hunt and play with his dogs and chickens; November, attend to his chickens, dogs and automobile and hunt. December, attend to his dogs, chickens and automobile, and make one trip to Pittsburg; January attend to his auto, dogs and chickens. February, attend to his auto, chickens, and dogs; March, go south.

Seems like Honus was a really cool, down-to-earth guy.

On the other end of the spectrum, there’s Cleveland Naps pitcher Roy Walker, who’s just been convicted of “assault with intent to kill” and sentenced to ten years in prison. The linked article says a motion for a new trial had been made and I guess it succeeded, because Walker threw 181 innings in the minors in 1913.