Offered here is a rare single signed baseball from the late great New York Yankees catcher Elston Howard. Howard was one of the great pioneers of the sports community as the first African American Yankee to grace the professional baseball diamond. He was tragically taken from the baseball fan community at the young age of 51 because of health issues, making any of his personally signed items very rare. A single signed non-personalized Elston Howard baseball is one of the holy grail collectibles of an amazing era of Yankee history. His accomplishments were unparalleled for so many reasons, but the smiles and the pride that he brought to the African American community of Yankee fans during his years of play is beyond words. Such a wonderful person to have represented such an important time in baseball history, not to mention he won Gold Glove Awards in 1963 and 1964, in the latter season setting AL records for putouts and total chances in a season. He was voted the American League MVP in 1963, the first African American player to receive the American League MVP honor. His lifetime fielding percentage of .993 as a catcher was a major league record from 1967 to 1973, and he retired among the AL career leaders in putouts (7th, 6,447) and total chances (9th, 6,977). Howard signed this Official American League Lee Mac Phail stamped baseball in blue pen on the side pane and inscribed “Best of Luck”. The ball displays toning and the stampings are light, but it does not detract from the beauty of Howard’s signature. This comes with a LOA from PSA/DNA.

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