Spectacular George Sosnak Folk-Art Baseball of Don Denkinger

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/19/2020

Incredibly intricate folk-art tribute ball, hand-painted by former minor-league umpire George Sosnak (1922-1992), and in this particularly poignant instance, spotlighting a fellow minor-league umpire (circa 1966), Don Denkinger. The legendary umpire would go on to a distinguished 30-year career in the major leagues, but in 1966 he was in the International League and working his way up to the Big Show. Sosnak, who was also bouncing around several minor-league circuits as an umpire at the time, would never call balls and strikes in the majors, but would instead find his way to Cooperstown and beyond by producing an estimated 800 or more of these remarkable folk-art treasures. The artist’s impeccable pen-and-ink drawings, with color added later in the process, appear on each of the four panels of this lightly shellacked Near-Mint ball (another Sosnak hallmark), detailing Denkinger’s first appearance umpiring major leaguers (spring training that year, highlighting his successful completion of the Al Somers Umpire School and noting his elevation to the International League. The artwork is stunning and the colors as elegant and intricate as the meticulous, finely detailed text, another of the distinctive elements of Sosnak’s fabled genre. By the time Denkinger retired in 1998, Sosnak had already passed; the legacy of the former (that pesky missed call at first base in Game Six of the 1985 World Series) still causes grumbling in St. Louis and environs, while Sosnak’s status has expanded almost exponentially, with his colorful baseball’s taking their place as a legitimate niche – and usually quite pricey - all unto itself in the hobby. This particular artifact, certainly one of the earlier pieces in the extraordinary canon of Sosnak’s tenure, is an elegant tribute to both men. The ball comes with a Letter of Authenticity signed by Denkinger.