Tris Speaker Boston-A 12/02/09

Tristram Edgar "Spoke" Speaker (1888–1958), also called "The Grey Eagle," appears here in the Sporting News Supplement dated December 2, 1909, at the close of his first full season with the Boston Americans. Born April 4, 1888 in Hubbard, Texas, the left-handed-hitting and left-handed-throwing center fielder broke in with Boston in 1907 and would patrol the outfield deeper than any contemporary, playing the position so shallow that he caught his share of infield pop-ups behind second base. He won the 1912 American League Chalmers MVP and led Boston to World Series titles in 1912 and 1915 before a 1916 trade sent him to Cleveland, where he managed the franchise to its first championship in 1920. He retired in 1928 with 3,514 hits, the all-time doubles record at 792, and a .345 career batting average. The Sporting News Supplements were oversized newspaper-distributed portraits, and the December 1909 dated issue is one of the earliest of his collectible cards. He died December 8, 1958 in Lake Whitney, Texas and is buried at Fairview Cemetery in Hubbard. The Hall of Fame elected him in 1937 in the second class.