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Lot # 76: 1961 Roger Maris #7 Home Run Baseball w/Photo Documentation

Category: Mantle and Maris

Starting Bid: $1,000.00

Bids: 33 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "Invit17",
which ran from 5/23/2017 10:30 AM to
6/30/2017 9:00 PM



The very baseball directly from the son of the fan who caught it in the stands of Yankee Stadium on May 31st, during that "Perfect Season" of 1961. It comes with the original program Louis DiAngelo held that very day, Type I Daily News wire photo showing him catching it with two matching newspaper articles showing the image, along with the son's handwritten and notarized LOA. Ironically, This is home run #7, the uniform number of icon Mickey Mantle, the man Maris raced to the finish to beat Babe Ruth's seemingly unbeatable single season 1927 home run record. The ball, program, photo and articles originally came from Louis DiAngelo, a diehard New York Yankee fan, who attended the game at Yankee Stadium on May 31, 1961. He was the lucky fan who caught the ball in the stands when Roger Maris home run #7 off Chuck Estrada of the Baltimore Orioles. The program is mostly unscored but in DiAngelo's hand. This matches the authentic vintage writing of Louis D'Angelo on the baseball itself reading, "H.R. #7 HIT BY ROGER MARIS 5/31/61." LOA from Louis Jr. reads, "I discovered this 1961 RogerMaris #7 home run baseball among his things along with other pieces of his sports memorabilia from his life. The writing on the ball is in his hand. I also discovered the program from that very game as well." The ball has the absolutely correct look of a period Major League game used ball based on our nearly fifty years in this industry. It is rubbed up by the umpire, the writing is vintage and in Louis Sr.'s own hand matching the program. Interestingly, catching that baseball was not as big a deal at the time as it later became. It was "merely" a home run ball hit by the A.L. MVP of the previous season in the grandeur of Yankee Stadium. However, as the season progressed it became larger and larger in the historic rear view mirror. Roger Maris battled "home run twin" Mickey Mantle for the home run crown and the race to the Babe. This, on the road to eclipsing Babe Ruth's historic 1927 home run record and for Maris, achieving immortality. And which eventually led to his own "mortality." And the rest, as they say, is history. The only 1961 Roger Maris home run ball in private hands that we are aware of except of course for the priceless #61.

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