Summer Premium and Catalog Auction July 31 & Aug 8
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/31/2015
Still the most prolific home run hitter in World Series history Mickey Mantle’s 18 Fall Classic Circuit Clouts outdistance even Babe Ruth’s 15 and other Yankees legends like Yogi Berra (12) Lou Gehrig (10) and Reggie Jackson (10). With 27 World Series titles and 40 Series appearances it stands to reason that Yankees players would dominate the World Series leaders’ board.
“The Mick” hit his first two World Series home runs in games Six and Seven of the Yankees Series victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952. He added two more as the Yanks defeated the Dodgers again in 1953 and contributed another in a losing effort to the Dodgers in 1955. He notched three more series dingers as the Yankees downed the Dodgers again in 1956, the third coming in Don Larsen’s 2-0 “Perfect” Game Five. He connected for one long ball in the Yankees Series loss to the Milwaukee Braves in the 1957 and hit two more when the Yanks bounced back against the Braves in 1958. “Muscles” Mantle recorded his second three-home-run Series in the Yankees stunning loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960 and tied Ruth’s record with his 15th Series blast off Sandy Koufax, accounting for the only run in the 4th and final game of the Dodgers Series sweep of the Yankees in 1963. Mantle’s final three World Series home runs all came in the Yankees 1964 Series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, hitting a walk-off blast (before the term existed) in the Yankees 2-1 victory in Game Three and a three-run shot off Bob Gibson as the Bombers bowed to the Cardinals in Game Seven for his 18th and final Series clout.
But it is this ball that Mantle knocked completely out of the original Busch Stadium in St. Louis off Cardinals pitcher Curt Simmons in the top of the sixth inning of the sixth game for his 17th World Series home run that has amazingly found its way to be offered here.
According to official documentation in the form of a notarized letter accompanying the ball and consistent with the 51-year-old anecdotal inscription written on a side panel of the ball stating: “Home Run hit by Mickey Mantel [sic] Busch Stadium. St. Louis – about 1:45 p.m. Wed. Oct. 14 1964 in World Series between Yanks & Cardinals …Yanks-Cards…Final game won by Cards 7-5 Oct. 15;” the ball that Mantle blasted out of Busch was recovered by the friend of one Helen Gunter as the pair was walking outside of the ballpark. Gunter’s written testimony in the notarized letter dated May 21, 1999 reads as follows: “This is to certify that I was present when this baseball was hit by Mickey Mantel [sic]. I was on vacation in St. Louis and a friend and myself were walking down by the baseball stadium when the ball came over the wall. Two black boys lunged for the ball, it bounced in the air, and my friend caught it. My friend wrote on the ball and sent it home with me to give to [my] dad, Sam Gurtner, who was a baseball fan always listening to baseball games. The baseball has always been in my possession until this date.”
One of only two authenticated Mickey Mantle World Series home run balls confirmed to be in private hands or up for public auction to be offered at auction, the other being the walk-off blast hit at Yankee Stadium in Game Three four days earlier for number 16, which was sold by the Mantle family for $106,200 on December 8, 2003.
This Warren Giles Official National League Ball exhibits even game use consistent with that of a ball being used for a portion of the game including; the umpire’s pre-game rubdown with mud and other dirt stains, scuffs and abrasions associated with regular game use the Official National League and commissioner’s labeling signature is smudged where Mantle’s bat may have made contact with the ball and there is a scuff mark next to the sweet spot where the ball may have made contact with the ground.
This significant contribution to Mickey Mantle’s enduring legacy as the World Series most prolific home run hitter comes with a Mears LOA and is one of only two of Mantle’s 18 historic blasts known to exist. None of Mantle’s World Series home runs balls are on display or in the possession of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New Yok or in the New York Yankees Museum at Yankee Stadium.
Video footage of Mantle’s blast leaving Busch Stadium can be seen at the 31:47 mark in this video