LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 May Sports Sig. Auction #707  / 

19377

1938 Hank Greenberg 56th Home Run Baseball. "Cl

Currency:USD Category:Sports - Cards & Fan Shop / Sports - Game Used Memorabilia Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:4,000.00 - 6,000.00 USD
1938 Hank Greenberg 56th Home Run Baseball. Cl
<B>1938 Hank Greenberg 56th Home Run Baseball.</B></I> "Class tells," Jackie Robinson was once quoted as saying. "It sticks out all over Mr. Greenberg." These two legendary figures are linked by far more than Hall of Fame credentials and a mutual admiration (Greenberg was among the only opposing players to welcome Robinson to the Majors in 1947), rating also as two of the bravest men to wear a professional athletic uniform. Before African-Americans became the prime target for racist fans, it was the Jews, and Greenberg in particular who drew the taunts and curses of fans and opponents alike. It has been rather convincingly argued that 1938 would have seen Greenberg break Babe Ruth's 1927 home run record, but seeing the danger that a Jew might assume this throne, opposing pitchers chose to walk the Tiger slugger rather than give him a shot at the Babe. And so Greenberg would finish the season with 119 free passes, the highest in the American League that season, and the greatest total of his career.<BR><BR> Here we present an incredible artifact from late in that memorable season that had every Jewish baseball fan in America huddled close to his radio, the very baseball launched by Greenberg to move with four long balls of Ruth, and within two of his own ultimate season total of fifty-eight. It comes to us from the great nephew of the man who caught the ball in the outfield bleachers of Detroit's Navin Field in the bottom of the seventh inning of a meeting with the Cleveland Indians on September 23, 1938. This consignor's included letter of provenance explains how his father, then a young boy, was handed the ball by his uncle and instructed to bring it to Greenberg for an autograph. The black ink inscription, "To Bob, Best Wishes, 'Hank' Greenberg," is still visible upon the ragged sphere's side panel.<BR><BR> Joining the inscription in the same ink but a different hand is the simple notation "#56," which has miraculously survived the rough treatment the ball received at the hands of our consignor, who admits that he removed the ball from his father's dresser drawer when he was a child and subjected it to a game in the street. Again, we stress that the numerical notation is undeniably vintage to the time of the autograph, and no other possible conclusion could be made as to its meaning, making our consignor's story iron-clad. So while the baseball has seen better days, no amount of "street ball" could wear away the tremendous historic significance of what is almost certainly the only documented Greenberg home run ball from that remarkable season, and possibly the only documented Greenberg home run ball, period. <I>LOA from PSA/DNA. LOA from James Spence Authentication.</B></I><BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Balls, Pucks, etc., Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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