1) “My grandfather gave me this ball. Four out of the five autographs are Hall of Famers. I stored it away out of light.” — Rick Trail
I consulted several of the toughest autograph authorities, including Josh Evans, chairman and founder of Leland’s and Mike Hefner, its president. Ron Keurajian, author of a Hall of Fame autograph guide I posted about, also weighed in. Over the years, they have rejected numerous pieces I have shared with them. The best news is that the ayes have it and they agree that your ball’s signatures are the real deal.
The downsides of your ball are pretty apparent. First it’s more of a mish-mash of players rather than a theme unified by a team or milestone like 500 home-run hitters. It falls into the category of an “Old Timer’s" baseball. The presence of Ralph Houk, the Yankees longtime player, manager, and executive, precludes it from being a Hall of Fame ball because he was never inducted. Finally the ball is neither an official American League or National League, but a generic one— albeit made in the USA which dates it to the 1960s or earlier.
The great news is your ball is in beautiful condition with big, bold, and legible signatures that rate a 10. The ball is pristine, suffering none of the toning that darkens balls; even from 20 years ago. Evans and Hefner estimate the ball’s value to be between $1000 and $2000. It might be worth more if you can determine that there are additional signatures on the ball, as it appears there are.
Above all, the five, not four, Hall of Famers rank as some of the greatest players who ever lived, starring in the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s. They all died before the autograph boom in the 1980s and are harder to find on baseballs than most other mediums.
Pie Traynor. Until Brooks Robinson, Eddie Mathews, and Mike Schmidt came along, Traynor was widely regarded as the greatest third baseman of all time. During his 17-year-career with Pittsburgh’s Pirates he was an acrobat in the field, throwing from awkward positions and bare-handing potential doubles. He was also a superbt hitter, compiling a .320 lifetime average with 2416 hits.
George Sisler. The graceful St. Louis Browns first baseman swung a 42-ounce hickory bat to great effect. From 1920-1922 he posted averages of .407, .371, and .420, striking out just 60 times while amassing 719 hits. Playing for the lowly Browns, he was the batting champion in 1920 and 1922 and won the American League MVP in 1922. His career .340 average is one of the highest of all time. “Sisler is probably the only player other Gehrig who can reasonably be considered the greatest first baseman ever in terms of peak value,” Bill James wrote.
Hank Greenberg. The Detroit Tigers’ powerful slugger from the Bronx, New York surpassed 30 home runs six times and topped 145 RBIs four times, including an 183-RBI season in 1937 that left him eight RBIs shy of breaking the record. In 1938 he 58 homeruns, putting him within striking distance of Babe hallowed record of 60. Greenberg, as the greatest everyday Jewish player in history, is a folk hero much in the way Sandy Koufax is. Had Greenberg not lost four and a half years to World War II, James estimates that he would have hit about 611 home runs in his career, becoming the first to reach that mark since Babe Ruth.
Frank Frisch. “As a hard-nosed second baseman and one of baseball’s original switch-hitters, the [“Fordham Flash”] was a throwback to the intense, aggressive, daring, reckless style of baseball practiced at the turn of the century,” wrote Ron Smith in Heroes of the Hall. Frisch was the heart of four World Series championship teams, two with the Giants in the early 1920s and two with the Cardinals teams in the early 1930s. Given his slight weight, 165, he knocked in runs at a prodigious clip, exceeding 100 RBIs three times. While he had 2,880 hits lifetime, compiling a .316 average, Frisch’s most amazing stat is that he struck out only 272 times.
Joe McCarthy. “As a combination disciplinarian, handler of pitchers strategist and winner, it’s easy to make a case for him as the greatest manager of all time,”Smith wrote. In an amazing 16-year span, he led the Yankees to eight pennants and seven World Series championships. Finishing his 24-year career, 2,125-1,333, he had the highest regular season winning percentage for a manager ever, .615, and was 30-13 in the World Series, .698.
2) “I have a baseball in very good condition with Bill Freehan, Al Kaline, Mickey Lolich, and Denny McLain.” – Colin Howard
As I reported in an earlier post, Buyer Beware: 10 Sports Memorabilia Items You Should Twice About, be careful about facsimile baseballs. Look closely through a magnifying glass to see the factory stamping rather than hand-writing. Another easy way to tell the difference is that on genuine team-signed balls players sign their names in neat, horizontal rows. On facsimile baseballs they appear randomly. As a stadium souvenir, it's worth about $25 to $50, depending on whether it originates from the Tigers' `1968 World Series Championship.
