Baseball's First Superstar

[glasspoet]

Mike Kelly was a 5 "tool" player. He could run like the wind and was a stolen base expert, throw hard, hit like crazy, played all over the diamond well, and could power the ball out of the ballpark! In addition he was a socialite, a womanizer, and considered an extremely handsome man by the standards of the day. He was noted for increasing the popularity of baseball greatly, especially with the womenfolk! Some have suggested he might possibly have fathered more children than anyone else in American history!

The league had mandated the maximum salary of $5,000 long ago. When Mike refused to play for that---they broke their long standing rule and gave him a $10,000 salary! After that he became known as the $10,000 Beauty! The nickname he is best known by is simply "The King"---which is why most baseball fans know him simply as King Kelly!

[glasspoet]

Wow, I just read an article where a wealthy Elks Club member kept some Elks Club memories in a trunk. When his widow finally died, the family sold the trunk full of Elks junk to a man for $25 dollars. He was a longtime Elks club member himself and he found an old program that looked good, encased it behind glass, and hung it up with his other Elks lifetime memories. 25 years later his grandson, or some family member, was looking at his stuff and exclaimed--that's a signed King Kelly photograph!

No signed PHOTOGRAPH (not a bat that was used to hit 60 homers or glove that caught famous catch, etc.) had EVER sold for 6 figures--but the auctioneer thought this might. IT SOLD FOR $214,936!!