Three-time batting champ and 1927 Most Valuable Player Paul Waner was the seventh man in big league history to amass 3,000 hits. A lifetime .333 hitter, Waner enjoyed a 20-year playing career in the Major Leagues. In the collection is this autographed page from Who’s Who in Baseball from 1933. Notice the listing of Waner’s home address at the top of the page. These books contained a page for each Major Leaguer and manager and remain a sought after collectible in their own right.

Paul and Lloyd Waner combined to for 5,611 big league hits, the most ever by a brother combination. In fact, Big Poison and Little Poison tallied more base knocks than memorable brother trios of DiMaggio — Joe, Dom, and Vince had 4,853 hits — and Alou — Felipe, Matty, and Jesus had 5,094 hits. Together the Waners played 32 seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates and 38 years overall.

Issued continuously from 1934 to 1936, the National Chicle Diamond Stars set features a color art rendering of a player photograph, usually “in action,” along with his name. Not nearly as remembered as the Goudey sets from the same time, the Diamond Stars set is still quite attractive. Shown here is Lloyd Waner’s card from that set. Little Poison has signed the bottom of the card that shows a posed Waner catching a ball in his glove.

In this handwritten letter of March 3, 1958 Lloyd Waner writes to the organizer Honus Wagner Dedication Day. “Will be glad to help out on ole Honus Dedication Day — I have given about all my old Baseball things away — but I’ll try to rake up a few things.” The rest of the content bears reading as well. is After boldly signing his name, Waner writes the address of his older brother Paul at the bottom of the letter.

In this letter dated November 27, 1973 Lloyd Waner responds to a collector’s question about the best player Waner played with. “Yes there was a quite a bunch of great players at Pittsburgh. Hard to say who was the best.” Though he fails to identify his greatest teammate he does write, “One of my greatest thrills as the World Series against the Yankees in 1927.” Waner continues with other recollections of his 18-year playing career.

Lloyd Waner provided the autograph collector with another example of his signature when he penned his name in the return address portion of this envelope. Waner collected at least 214 hits in four of his first five seasons with the Pirates including a career-high 234 in 1929. By the time his career was over, Little Poison 2,459 hits and a .316 lifetime average.