1924 JOSÉ MÉNDEZ "THE BLACK DIAMOND" (HOF) NEGRO LEAGUE ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH PSA/DNA TYPE I.
Item Description
PLEASE NOTE- IN OUR PHOTO OF THE BACK OF THE PHOTO BEING OFFERED, WHAT YOU SEE ARE POCKETS OF AIR UNDER THE PLASTIC AND CAUSED BY THE PSA ENCAPSULATION PROCESS. THESE ARE NOT FLAWS OR DEFECTS IN ANY WAY ON THE ACTUAL ITEM.
Presented here is what we believe to be the only known in-action, full figure pose depicting Cuban and Negro League legendary hurler, José Méndez, wearing his 1924 Kansas City Monarchs pinstriped uniform. While original photographs of former Negro League greats are exceedingly rare to begin with, even more rare are those images portraying the subject in their Negro League attire as opposed to a Winter League uniform from such foreign destinations as Cuba, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Adding to the importance of this amazing relic is the fact that Méndez led the Kansas City Monarchs club to the first-ever Negro League World Series championship in 1924, besting the Hilldale ball club with 5 wins, 4 losses and 1 tie.
José Méndez was born in Cuba in 1887 and made his baseball debut there in 1903 at the age of sixteen. Five years later, he was pitching for Havana, the top team in Cuba, and that same year, 1908, he made his U.S. debut, recording a 3-0 record for the Brooklyn Royal Giants. Méndez would go on to unrivaled success over the next decade and a half, including some of the most memorable pitching duels in baseball history, outpitching both Christy Mathewson and Eddie Plank in exhibition games along with the great Rube Foster during an epic Negro League battle. However, José's best remembered performance came in 1911 while pitching for Almendares, when he shut out Smokey Joe Williams' team for 10 innings and picked up the win after Williams went the first nine frames without allowing a single hit but was tagged with the loss in the 10th. While Méndez played virtually every season of his career in both Cuba and the U.S. at different times of the year, José is best remembered here for his time with the Kansas City Monarchs, joining the club in 1920 and teaming up with "Bullet Joe" Rogan to form possibly the greatest one-two pitching punch in Negro League baseball history. Méndez would stay with Kansas City through his final season of 1926. Tragically, he would only live two more years, dying from bronchopneumonia in the fall of 1928.
Photo is 8x10". The back of the photograph exhibits ink stamp of the photographer responsible for this iconic image, "Jose Luis Lopez". Back has extensive publication markings, notations and newspaper clipping text. Includes ink stamp dates of when this photo was reused over the years, including 1950 and then again as late as 1988, before it found its way into the Merkin Collection. Moderate all over scattered creases from handling but most just seen in reflected light. Image remains bold and distinct and photo remains glossy.
Given the highly coveted designation of being a Type I original photograph by PSA/DNA, this was assigned an estimated date range of 1920s by PSA. As mentioned previously, our extensive research has identified that 1924 was the only season that the Monarchs wore this specific style of uniform. We have been unable to uncover any prior public sales of a Type I Méndez photo of this magnitude so the value is truly in the hands of the bidders. Don't pass up the opportunity to own this one-of-a-kind treasure, you rarely get a chance to add a true centerpiece such as this to your Cuban/Negro League photograph collection. Offered for the first time at auction and from The Richard Merkin Collection.
