It’s hard to overstate the magnitude of Mickey Mantle’s stupendous 1956 season. One of only 13 post-1900 Major Leaguers to wear his league’s Triple Crown and the first in either league since Ted Williams in 1947, Mantle’s mammoth 52 home runs were the most ever by a Triple Crown winner and his .353 batting average was his career-high-to-date (although he would exceed it with a whopping .365 the following season). In addition to his American League leading 130 RBI, he also led the league with 132 runs scored, a .705 slugging percentage and 376 total bases. Mantle was of course a unanimous selection for the AL MVP Award as well, garnering all 24 first-place votes in front of second-place teammate Yogi Berra and the Yankees returned to championship form bouncing back from the 1955 World Series loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers with a Series victory over the selfsame “Bums” in 1956. Mantle burst out of the gate as early as spring training launching a prodigious projectile over the left field bleachers at St. Petersburg’s Al Lang Stadium and into Tampa Bay that St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Stan Musial said no other home run had cleared his head by such a great distance. Mantle knocked his first two home runs of the regular season on Opening Day against the Washington Senators at Griffith Stadium, knocked another homer in the home opener at Yankee Stadium three days later and never let up reaching 29 long balls by the season’s midway point.

     This powerful piece of Mantle’s personal arsenal (fresh to the hobby) is one of only three recorded and authenticated bats from Mantle’s most memorable season (and one of only two signed); a signed Louisville Slugger home run bat used in the 1956 All-Star game at Griffith Stadium brought $430,200 at auction in February of 2014 and an un-signed game-used Adirondack with a cracked handle sold for $103,687.50 in July of 2014. This auspicious, un-cracked 35-inch, 31.1-ounce natural finish White Ash Hillerich and Bradsby M110 Mickey Mantle professional signature model bat shows nice use with cleat marks, bat rack tracks, stitch impressions(perhaps from one of his 52 homers) and some light pine tar staining. Bat has model number M110 engraved in its knob and Mantle’s facsimile signature branded into the barrel between “Genuine” and “Louisville Slugger” with “Powerized” branding above its “Louisville Slugger 125 Hillerich and Bradsby Made in U.S.A. Louisville, KY REG U.S. PAT OFF” label. According to Mantle’s (PBOR) record of file at Louisville Slugger Inc. the bat was ordered on February 26, 1956 and is period signed by 30 members of the 1956 World Series Champion New York Yankees team including Mantle and fellow Hall of Famers Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Casey Stengel and Bill Dickey as well as Frank Crosetti, Elston Howard, Don Larsen, Bob Turley, Tom Morgan, Bob Grim, Billy Martin, Irv Noren, Johnny Kucks, Eddie Robinson, Gil McDougald, Andy Carey, Joe Coleman, Bill Skowron, Bob Cerv, Tom Sturdivant, Tom Carroll, Rip Coleman, Jim Turner, Hank Bauer and batboy Joe Carrieri. All signatures are in green ballpoint pen and comes with PSA/DNA certification# W07304. This history making bat used during Mantle’s Triple Crown season has received a PSA GU 7 rating. One of the most important Mantle bats in the hobby, and the first time it has ever been offered for sale!

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