While my focus is to collect one million Chicago Cubs baseball cards, I do collect other Cubs memorabilia. There is nothing specific I seek out, only items I find spur of the moment.
I recently found a collection that has been pieced out with mostly Cubs game used memorabilia. A bulk of the collection is game used bats, but some other game used pieces of equipment have gone up for auction.
One piece of equipment really caught my eye. A pair of black Wilson cleats that are vintage and really beat up. These shoes have a lot of character.
As I clicked on the item description to learn more this was a pair of game used cleats worn by former Chicago Cub Hank Sauer. Not only was Sauer a former Cubs player, but he was the National League MVP as a member of the Cubs in 1952.
Sauer led the league in home runs (37) and RBI (121) during his MVP campaign. During his 15-year MLB career, Sauer hit 288 home runs as a member of the Cincinnati Reds, Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, and San Francisco Giants.
Reading more about these cleats, they were acquired from the Paul Hill collection. Hill was a pioneer in game used equipment collecting, starting in the 1930’s. The Hill collection was liquidated in 1994 by Centerfield Collectibles, which is where my game used Sauer cleats were obtained. The original Certificate of Authenticity from that sale shown here.
“It will take the auctioneers’ 16 or 17 auctions of 1,000 to 1,100 items each to move the collection.”
Philadelphia daily news (10/6/1994) on centerfield Collectibles sale of the paul hill collection
The Philadelphia Daily News also previewed the large-scale auction of Hill’s collection in a Ted Taylor column appearing in the December 16, 1993 issue of the newspaper.
“When I first started collecting, people used to make fun of me. They don’t make fun of me anymore.”
Paul Hill to the philadelphia daily news (12/16/1993)
It was great joy being able to add something to my own collection from such a well-known collector as Paul Hill. Acquiring the Hank Sauer game-used cleats for such a low price made it even better.