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1904 thru 1907 Detroit Tigers Financial Ledger Filled Out by Frank Navin - Records Purchase of Ty Cobb's Contract and First Major League Payment to Cobb in 1905!
<p>Financial ledger recording the day-to-day operations of the Detroit Tigers between the years 1904 and 1907. While the information alone in this ledger makes it an extremely important historical piece, it is all the more significant for the following three reasons: 1) It records both the purchase of Ty Cobb's contract from the Augusta Tourists and Cobb's first Major League salary payment in 1905; 2) A<span style="font-size: 13px;">ll the entries are recorded in the hand of team president and future team owner Frank Navin, including sixty-six individual signature examples; 3) It records the first Major League salary payment to Eddie Cicotte in 1905. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 13px;">The 152-page hardbound ledger (10.5x16.5") records all the "Cash Received" and "Cash Disbursed" by the Tigers from January 2, 1904 to June 6, 1907, with all but the last page bearing entries. As noted on the first page, the club's official name at the time was the "Detroit Base Ball and Amusement Company," and all of its financial transactions are meticulously reported here in these pages. In addition to salary payments to players and other employees, the ledger records payments for hotel stays, baggage fees, train fares, laundry costs, equipment, telegrams, meals, advertising, and everything else related to running a baseball team. It also records cash received by the Tigers from gate receipts (for both home and away games) and sale of player contracts. Among the many prominent names recorded in the ledger as having received payment from the club are Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford, Hughie Jennings, Eddie Cicotte, Ban Johnson, Ed Barrow, Bill Donovan, Bobby Lowe, George Mullin, Germany Schaefer, and Davey Jones. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 13px;">Ty Cobb began his professional career in 1904 and at the start of 1905 he was playing with the Augusta Tourists of the Sally League. The Detroit Tigers trained in Augusta and that spring Cobb played in two exhibition games against the Tigers. Detroit liked what they saw in Cobb and in late August decided to purchase his contract for $700. Cobb made his Major League debut with Detroit on August 30th, in a game against the New York Highlanders at Bennett Park. This ledger records the $700 payment made to Augusta under the entry date "Aug 31" on Page 89. A separate entry date of "Sept. 1," on the same page, records Cobb's first Major League payment of $40.00. Entries under Cobb's name appear a total of nineteen times in the ledger. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 13px;">In addition to Cobb, pitcher Eddie Cicotte also made his Major League debut with the Tigers in 1905. Cicotte followed Cobb by four days, making his debut on September 3rd. He lost his first game while pitching in relief, but two days later he notched his first win with a complete-game victory over the White Sox. Those were Cicotte's only appearances in 1905 and he would not play another Major League game again until 1908. <span style="font-size: small;">One of the best pitchers in baseball between the years 1916 and 1920, Cicotte was one of eight White Sox players who were banned from baseball in 1921 for conspiring to "throw" the 1919 World Series. </span>Cicotte has two payment entries in the ledger on September 15th, one for $121.64 and the other for travel expenses of $26.00. His third and last entry in the ledger is on October 9th for $185.00. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 13px;">One of the most amazing aspects of this ledger is that it is entirely made out in the hand of Frank Navin, who was the club's business manager at the time. In 1908 he became part owner of the club and from 1919 to 1935 he was the principal owner. Because Navin both made payments to the club, and received a salary, his name is listed in the entry book sixty-six times, meaning there are sixty-six individual Frank Navin signature examples in the ledger. All the entries are boldly scripted in black fountain pen and the signatures average 9/10 overall. Navin died in 1935, so his signature is scarce today. While we wouldn't recommend anyone destroying the ledger to extract all the Navin signatures, the cumulative value would be significant in today's market. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 13px;">The ledger displays heavy wear to the covers and spine, but the pages remain clean and are in Excellent to Mint condition overall. Major League financial ledgers from this era are exceedingly rare. This is one of fewer than five such examples we have seen and the fact that it records the purchase of Cobb's contract and his first salary payment makes it especially significant.</span></p>
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