A Babe Ruth discovery hits a home run
A Willard’s Chocolate baseball card proves to hit a sweet spot with collectors
This 1923 Willard Chocolate “Babe Ruth” baseball card belonged to William Audley “Huck” Caesar. It was offered as part of Miller & Miller’s January 2023 auction of Advertising & Historic Objects.
A recent peek into a forgotten box, stored in the attic of her Waterloo home brought to Adele Graham much more than family memories.
“Inside the box, we found 17 or 18 baseball and hockey trading cards that my Dad, William Audley Caesar had collected years ago,” says Adele. Caesar, known to cronies as “Huck” around the Collingwood, Meaford area where the family lived, had been a dedicated baseball fan throughout his life. He’d had fun collecting the trading cards which the Willard’s Chocolate Company of Toronto had inserted in into their boxes of chocolates in the 1920’s, thinking nothing of their eventual value.
William Audley “Huck” Caesar
The cards, in sepia tone were non-descript. Each measured a modest 1 inch by 3 inches and features Major League baseball players (a few National Hockey Leaguers too) in action. The player’s signature was displayed on the card’s bottom, but the reverse side is blank. Over the generations, the names of most of the featured major leaguers had faded into that big locker room in the sky, but one stood out from the others. It featured Yankees star Babe Ruth, “the Bambino” in one of his patented home run swings at the plate.
Caesar’s collection of 1923 Willards Chocolate (V100) Baseball Cards brought $2,360 at Miller & Miller’s January 2023 auction.
“We wondered if they were worth anything,” says Adele. She started asking around about who might offer advice.
But, it seems, that the Willard’s Chocolate sports cards were not the only valued memorabilia to find a home in the Graham house. Adele reveals more of her father’s fascinating life.
“Dad made his living as a bank manager working at various Ontario branches, but he loved baseball. In his younger days he had been an exceptional hardball player and played for a number of local teams. Huck was a real star.”
Indeed, circa 1929, Huck took a trip to the Big Apple, New York City to see if he might be good enough for a tryout with Bronx Bombers. The fine details of the trip remain cloudy today. “Was he given a try out? Or did he just meet with someone on the team?” Adele speculates.
In any case, Huck Caesar returned to Ontario without a contract, but with an official major league baseball signed by most of the members of the New York Yankees, including the Magnificent Babe. Well actually, it seems everybody but the Babe put pens to the leather. Saving his fingers for his patented slider, Babe had another clubhouse member convincingly sign his name.
Huck Caesar’s 1929 New York Yankees Partial Team Signed Baseball was also offered as part of the January 2023 sale at Miller & Miller Auctions.
Huck kept his treasure safe while he continued to play the game he loved. In 1939, he helped the town of Meaford win the Ontario championship and later coached the Alliston team to win the Ontario Midget title in 1957. For his many achievements he was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame.
After her father’s passing, Adele inherited the keepsakes. With the discovery of the cards in 2022, Adele began to wonder if she should look for a buyer for both.
“When I started to ask around about how I should sell them, a business person whom I trust recommended Miller & Miller Auctions of New Hamburg. Adele made an appointment to take in the cards and the ball, and as the scoreboard tells, the rest is history.
Ethan Miller remembers seeing Adele Graham’s treasures for the first time. “I thought that it would be the ball that would bring in the most interest, mostly because of the Babe Ruth signature.” But on learning that the Babe Ruth signature had been ‘clubhouse’ signed, he downsized his evaluation from five figures to four.
More research into the 17 Willard’s Chocolate cards indicated the possibility of “a sleeper.” And so it was. The Miller and Miller auction of January 21, 2023 listed the top seller as Huck Audley’s forgotten baseball card, featuring Babe Ruth, V100 condition. It alone fetched $23,000 (with buyer’s premium.)
The 1923 Willards Chocolate (V100) Babe Ruth Baseball Card sold for $23,000 in Miller & Miller’s January 2023 auction.
The New York Yankees ‘clubhouse’ signed baseball topped out at $3,000 at the end of the day.
Adele Graham laughs that when she received her cheque from Miller & Miller listing the sale of the Babe Ruth card, she thought the auctioneers had make a mistake by sending her too much. “I couldn’t believe it,” she laughs.
The Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame cites William Audley “Huck Caesar” as “only a lightweight in physical proportions but “giant” on a baseball diamond.” Remembering her father as a “quiet sports memorabilia collector”, Adele wonders how her baseball-loving Dad would have reacted to the sale.
By Nancy Silcox
Nancy Silcox, of New Hamburg, is a former teacher and university counsellor. She has written 14 books, most of them historical biographies.
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