This 1923 New York Yankees team-signed baseball not only commemorates the club's first World Championship, but is also the most fully documented Yankees team ball we have ever seen, let alone handled. The ball was originally obtained by Ray Ashley when he was twelve years old. Ashley, who later became Vice Mayor of Tempe, Arizona, retold the story of how he met Ruth (and the entire New York Yankees team in 1923) to several newspaper reporters over the years, and the ball is accompanied by three separate laminated newspaper clippings (from 1948, 1970, and 1992, respectively) that detail its history. Even more incredible, Babe Ruth himself wrote about meeting Ashley in one of his 1923 "Babe Ruth Says" syndicated newspaper columns! (A copy of which also accompanies the ball.)

All the newspaper articles are posted online and can be read in their entirety, so we will briefly retell the story. In September, 1923, when Ashley was twelve years old, he boarded a train alone traveling from Arizona to New York (his father died and he was going to live with his aunt). Somewhere in the mid west the train added a private car and Ashley heard from the conductors that Babe Ruth and the Yankees were occupying that car. Naturally, he couldn't resist the opportunity to meet Babe Ruth and despite the conductor's warning not to go back there, he made his way into the car and met Ruth. The Babe was taken by the young boy's brashness and signed a ball for him, even personalizing it to him. He then tossed it around to let his teammates sign it. Ruth then told Ashley not to tell any of the other boys on the train about the ball, lest he be bombarded with additional autograph requests. Naturally, Ashley couldn't contain himself and when he told some other boys about meeting Ruth, they didn't believe him. So, as any other twelve-year-old boy would do when so challenged, he promptly took them back to the car to prove it. Ruth, probably expecting as much, wasn't too upset, and fielded a number of questions from the boys, one of which became the subject of his aforementioned newspaper column. 

The ball signed for Ashley that day in late September is an Official American League (Johnson) ball and features the black fountain-pen signatures of eighteen members of the eventual 1923 World Champion New York Yankees. Ruth's signature (grading 5/10) appears on the sweet spot, but on the side panel directly to the left of his signature he has added the personalization "To Raymond Ashley." Additional signatures include those of Meusel, Mays, Bush, Jones, Ward, Smith, Johnson, Scott, Roettger, Gazella, and Schang. Signatures range from 1/10 to 5/10, averaging 3/10. There is a signature removal directly above Ruth's signature, which is fully explained in one of the accompanying newspaper articles. Unfortunately, when he was still young, one of Ashley's friends mischievously stole into his room and signed the ball directly on the sweet spot above Ruth's name. As Ashley relates in the article, he later erased the signature, but the evidence of that erasure remains.  The ball is moderately toned and remains in Excellent condition overall. Full LOA from JSA.