Babe Ruth 100th Anniversary Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/19/2014
While Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle are baseball immortals, they both have passed from this earth. Maris and The Commerce Comet presided over the waning years of the post-war Yankee juggernaut, catapulting each other to greater diamond feats. The AL MVP was won by either of the two for three straight years, 1960 – ’62. Before Maris was traded to the Cardinals, the Yankees would lose the ’64 World Series and not make it back to the Fall Classic for another 12 seasons. In death, Maris and Mantle are separated by a 10-year span. Mantle, older by three years, outlived his teammate, dying August 13, 1995. Maris died in 1985, a too-young 51 years old.This lot includes two Maris funeral mass programs from two distinct services in his honor, one memorial card, and one Mantle funeral program for his Service of Celebration.
The first Maris Funeral program bears the inked illustration of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Fargo, ND. Its four pages contain the order of service, presiders, speakers and the 12 pall bearers. That would include baseball luminaries Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Clete Boyer, Mike Shannon, Bill Skowron and Whitey Herzog. The back page shows Maris connecting for his 61st HR in 1961.
The second Maris Funeral program bears the interlinked “NY” of the Yankees, Maris’ uniform number “9,” and a black-and-white, blue-tinted photograph of Maris with his name and lifespan years below. On the back cover is a blue-tint photograph of Maris’ plaque hung in 1984 at Yankee Stadium which pays tribute to Maris’ ’61 home run record. Notable speakers listed for this mass included Yankee teammate Phil Rizzuto, author Robert Merrill, and commentator Howard Cosell. The memorial card from Boulger Funeral Home in Fargo, ND is printed with Maris’s name and lifespan years at the top and the Bible verse below.
The program for Mantle’s “Service of Celebration” is printed in black ink on a pink-tinted bond. Dated August 15, 1995, it lists the service order and speakers, including commentator Bob Costas and former Yankee Bobby Richardson, and six pallbearers, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Bill Skowron, Hank Bauer, John Blanchard and Bobby Murcer.