After sweeping both the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals in the 1927 and 1928 World Series, all eyes were on the Yankees in 1929. On paper, the Yanks should have been a lock to repeat, with Babe Ruth hitting .345 with 46 homers and Lou Gehrig belting 35 homers. Additionally, the team finally had a bonafide star behind the plate when the young Bill Dickey hit .324 in his first full season as the Yankees starting catcher and West Coast superstar Lynn Lary was brought up to man third base.

The problem was the team’s pitching – no matter how well starters Waite Hoyt and George Pipgras threw, they were no match for the Philadelphia A’s staff of Lefty Grove, George Earnshaw and Rube Walberg. Add to that the big bats of Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Mickey Cochrane and it’s easy to see how the Yankees lost the pennant. But perhaps the biggest blow to the team was the loss of their manager, Miller Huggins. Hug has helmed the club for more than a decade and was every bit as valuable to the team’s success as Ruth and Gehrig. In September of 1929 Huggins fell ill and quickly passed away, throwing the Yankees further off their game. Coach Art Fletcher took control for the final weeks of the season, but Philly was too far in front, finishing 18 games above New York.

This outstanding ball brings together 16 members of the 1929 Yankees, including Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Leo Durocher, and Bill Dickey plus Ben Paschel, Julie Wera, Wilcy Moore, Cedric Durst, Bob Shawkey, Bob Meusel, Lynn Lary, Ed Wells, Fred Heimach, Tom Zachary, Mark Koenig and interim manager Art Fletcher. The signatures are in fine black fountain pen and simply pop off the creamy white leather surface, making this one of the more attractive Ruth-Gehrig-Murderer’s Row-era Yankees team-signed balls. The ball comes with LOAs from PSA/DNA (AF01073), JSA (Z53715) and SGC (AB03087)for the signatures.

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