Summer Premium and Catalog Auction July 31 & Aug 8
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/9/2015
Eccentric maverick owner of the Kansas City and later Oakland Athletics Charlie Finley had plenty of wild ideas when it came to the modernization of baseball not the least of which was his idea to employ orange colored baseballs. It was Finley’s idea that batters would be able to see an orange ball better and thus generate more scoring which he also believed fans crazed. The balls were experimented with in a spring training exhibition game between the A’s and Cleveland Indians in Arizona in 1973 and did seem to generate more offense with the Indians defeating the A’s 11-5. However batters complained that they could not pick up the spin of the red stitches on the orange ball and the idea came to pass. The Official Charles O. Finley [orange] Baseball is offered here in its original factory sealed packaging. The four side panels of the box contain; a Hugo Gellert like illustrated image of a batter at the plate, a picture of a ball with the word “Baseball” written on the sweet spot, a drawing of a baserunner sliding above the word “Baseball and a baseball with “The Official Charles O. Finley Baseball” label lettering. “High Quality Baseball” is written in two directions on the top and bottom of the box which is also contained in a plastic collector’s cube.