LiveAuctionTalk.com Highlights Walter Johnson Game Worn Jersey in its Weekly Free Article
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/Baseball News Articles/ - SANTA FE, NM, October 15, 2006 -- "The first time I faced him I watched him take that easy windup—and then something went past me that made me flinch." That's what Ty Cobb had to say about Walter Johnson's pitching arm.

"We stopped our clowning. We couldn't touch him...every one of us knew that we'd met the most powerful arm ever turned loose on a ball park."

By the time it was all said and done, Johnson, a right-hand pitcher for the Washington Nationals/Senators racked up 417 career wins. It was the second highest record in history topped only by Cy Young at 511. Johnson and Young are the only pitchers to date who have won 400 games or more.

"Johnson fastball looked about the size of a watermelon seed and it hissed at you as it passed." Cobb added.

In the 1920s there was no accurate way to measure the speed of Johnson's arm. It's believed he threw as high as 99 miles per hour from a side-arm angle.

Nicknamed, "The Big Train," Johnson's final major league appearance came as a pinch hitter in the same game in which Babe Ruth hit his then-record 60th home run of the season, Sept. 30, 1927.

Called the greatest right-hand pitcher in baseball history, Johnson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936.

From 1919 to 1922 Eric "Swat" Erickson and Johnson were pitchers as well as friends on the Washington Senators. Erickson watched from the bench as Johnson became a living legend.

When Erickson retired in 1922, he took mementos of the game home with him. Among the items he squirreled away in his farmhouse was a jersey belonging to Johnson.

After being tucked away in the attic for 80 years, the only known game worn Walter Johnson jersey in private hands sold at an auction in New York on June 24 sponsored by Sotheby's & SCP Auctions. The other known Johnson jersey resides in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Made by Spalding, the thick, flannel, grey pinstriped road jersey was estimated to sell for $200,000-$300,000. The jersey is the finest object associated with Johnson. It commanded $352,000.

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