Mickey Mantle Autographed Baseball
maddux69
Posts: 2,152 ✭✭✭✭✭
A little story of how I came about a Mickey Mantle autographed baseball as a kid.
Small town Salisbury, NC has always been the home of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Every year an awards banquet was held that would bring major celebrities to this sleepy little town for the weekend. In the early 80's Mickey Mantle was being awarded and decided to attend the ceremonies as well as an exhibition baseball game. Mickey didn't play in the game, but did wear his Yankees uniform. As a reserve duty police officer, my father was asked every year to work the event as his 6'5" 300+lb stature must have been intimidating to most.
I was a young kid, maybe 8 years old at the time and played Little League baseball which was wrapping up at the same time of the NSSA ceremonies. The coach for my team knew Mickey would be attending and asked my Dad if there was anyway he could get Mickey to sign baseballs for all of the kids on the team. The plan was to have him sign it and use that as the centerpiece for that year's trophies. My Dad was going to try and get the autographs and fulfill the team's dream trophies. The coach of the team gave my Dad the baseballs for him to sign, the only issue being is that he did not give him official league baseballs, but ones of the Little League variety. My Dad approached Mickey with the request and he agreed to do so after learning of the purpose. When Mickey went to sign the baseballs, he refused to do so since the were not Official League ones. Somehow, he was convinced to sign them(my Dad's stature probably helped) and the rest is history. I am still in possession of the only Mickey Mantle autographed Little League baseballs that I have ever heard of, outside of my fellow teammates. I may try to get it PSA certified at some point, who knows if they do so, I don't care...the story behind it is what counts.
Small town Salisbury, NC has always been the home of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Every year an awards banquet was held that would bring major celebrities to this sleepy little town for the weekend. In the early 80's Mickey Mantle was being awarded and decided to attend the ceremonies as well as an exhibition baseball game. Mickey didn't play in the game, but did wear his Yankees uniform. As a reserve duty police officer, my father was asked every year to work the event as his 6'5" 300+lb stature must have been intimidating to most.
I was a young kid, maybe 8 years old at the time and played Little League baseball which was wrapping up at the same time of the NSSA ceremonies. The coach for my team knew Mickey would be attending and asked my Dad if there was anyway he could get Mickey to sign baseballs for all of the kids on the team. The plan was to have him sign it and use that as the centerpiece for that year's trophies. My Dad was going to try and get the autographs and fulfill the team's dream trophies. The coach of the team gave my Dad the baseballs for him to sign, the only issue being is that he did not give him official league baseballs, but ones of the Little League variety. My Dad approached Mickey with the request and he agreed to do so after learning of the purpose. When Mickey went to sign the baseballs, he refused to do so since the were not Official League ones. Somehow, he was convinced to sign them(my Dad's stature probably helped) and the rest is history. I am still in possession of the only Mickey Mantle autographed Little League baseballs that I have ever heard of, outside of my fellow teammates. I may try to get it PSA certified at some point, who knows if they do so, I don't care...the story behind it is what counts.
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