Posted 3 years ago
rlwindle
(151 items)
This award clock features the Pennwood "Orion" sans baseplate. Silvanic was the VIP of the Minor League Akron Yankees.
In 1938, "The Sporting News, presented him this trophy.
Silvanic was a very talented and promising baseball player coming out of Johnson City High School where he starred on the court as well as the Diamond. After graduating, he signed to play baseball with Bassett in the Bi-State League. We would move on to Butler in the Yankees farm system, and the young player was labelled as a can't-miss prospect. In 1938, he tore up the Mid-Atlantic League with Akron, hitting .363 and topping the league with 35 home runs. Only 20 years old, the future seemed bright. However, appendicitis in 1939 slowed his ascent. He had played some professional basketball in the off-season for those two years, but his illness and inherent statistical fallback forced him to focus on baseball, the sport with the most promise.
Bad luck plagued him again in 1940, when in the middle of another fine season in the Yankees farm system, this time with Binghamton, we was struck in the head with a pitch in the first game of a doubleheader. Despite being carried off the field, Silvanic insisted on playing in the nightcap, and his decision to do so affected his play the rest of the season as his performance plummeted. More injuries befell him through the early 1940's and Silvanic never rose higher than AA ball. He would eventually quit.
When I bought this trophy, it was supposedly cordless, back in the 30s and 40s if an electric device went bad, people cut the cords off, this trophy was the exception, the cord was stuffed in the clock's case, it was brittle so it had to be cut off anyway.
The clock still works after a motor overhaul. I disassembled the motor, cleaned it and put a new cord on it and it started right up. The trophy figure is missing the top part of his bat, normally these figures are spelter, this one is pewter.
Evidently the Orion was the choice du jour for trophy clocks.
That’s Sensational !!!!