Known as both "the Gipper," and "Dutch," Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States. Presented is a single-signed Ronald Reagan baseball. Reagan grew up in Illinois and after high school, he furthered his education in-state, at Eureka College. The former President was very connected to sports, and he was on both the football and swimming & diving teams at Eureka. After college, he became a radio broadcaster, and he broadcast the Chicago Cubs on WHO of Des Moines, Iowa, utilizing his imagination to re-create games from a basic telegraph feed. Reagan took a screen test for Warner Brothers in the 1936, when he was in California covering the Cubs' spring training, and he soon began his career as a movie actor.  His breakthrough movie role was as Notre Dame star halfback George Gipp in the movie Knute Rockne, All American (1940). Among Reagan's many films were Dark Victory (1939), Kings Row (1942), and the baseball movie The Winning Team (1952), with Reagan portraying Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander. 

Reagan served terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild for two different stretches. He was elected Governor of California in 1966. He served two terms as President of the United States (1981-89). In 1981, Reagan survived an assassination attempt. As President, he helped to lower taxes and shrink Federal Government. He also authorized the Invasion of Grenada, and opposed the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. Famously, regarding the Berlin Wall, Reagan told Gorbachev "Tear down that wall," and the Berlin Wall actually did come down within a few years. 

The offered baseball is a Rawlings (Haiti) Official American League Ball (MacPhail) which dates this ball to circa 1982, which was during Reagan's first term as President. He signed the ball on the sweet spot, using a black, fiber-tip marker to craft a neat, bold autograph rating 8.5/10. The stamped league and league president information has scratch marks and fading, and is only partly legible. The label opposite the sweet spot appears to have residue from previous display, and Rawlings stamp exhibits fading. The ball has a few stains and minor indents, but the stains do not interfere with the Reagan signature. It also appears that there is a faint signature of Walt Alston at the top of the south panel, which was not stated on the JSA letter. The signed ball comes with a JSA LOA for the Reagan signature. PSA declined to write a letter on this ball.