Description:

1927 Signed Babe Ruth ball! American League Baseball signed by Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Miller J. Huggins, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Tony Lazzeri, Frank Frisch, and Waite Hoyt and seven others including Urban Shocker

Official American League Baseball (Ban Johnson, President) Signed "Babe Ruth" (" 7" ) on the sweet spot, and "M.J. Huggins" (" 6-7" ), "G.C. Alexander" (" 7" ), "Urban Shocker" (" 7-8" ), "Tony Lazzeri" (" 5-6" ), "Frank Frisch" (" 6-7" ), "Waite Hoyt" (" 8" ), "Dutch Ruether," "Bennie Bengough," "Bob Shawkey," "Roy Chesterfield," "Virgil Davis" and "Hi Ferrill." Toned, with flaking, with a light application of shellac. All the foregoing names, except two, were members of the 1927 New York Yankees: Grover Cleveland Alexander and Frank Frisch played for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1927. Alexander is the toughest autograph of all the inaugural Hall of Fame inductees alive for the 1939 opening. Shocker died in 1928, Huggins in 1929.

The Cardinals had defeated the Yankees in the 1926 World Series in seven games. From Grover Cleveland Alexander's plaque in the Hall of Fame: "Won 1926 World Championship for Cardinals by striking out Lazzeri with bases full in final crisis at Yankee Stadium." In 1927, in Spring Training, the Yankees played 12 games in Florida. The last games in Florida were against the Cardinals whom they played again as they headed north, a total of seven exhibition games with the World Champion Cardinals. Alexander and Frisch (he was with the Cubs in 1926) signed this ball during one of those exhibition games. The March 26, 1927, edition of "The New York Times," datelined "St. Petersburg, Fla., March 25...a few other young men who have worn the uniform of the Yankees this Spring. The trains parting out of St. Petersburg today carried a few last-minute passengers...When Virgil Davis and Hugh Ferrell unrolled about two yards of pink paper they found that their destination was the Reading Club of the International League where they have been sent on option. Davis is a catcher and Ferrell an infielder..." On March 26, 1927, in their first meeting since the last game of the 1926 World Series, the Cardinals defeated the Yankees 13-2 at in Avon Park, Florida.

Pitcher Urban Shocker pitched his last game for the Yankees on May 30, 1928. He was released on July 6th. Ill for several weeks, 37-year-old spitballer Urban Shocker died of pneumonia and heart disease on September 9, 1928. A year later, on September 25, 1929, Yankees manager Miller Huggins died of blood poisoning brought on by an infection beneath his left eye. Both Shocker and Huggins signatures on baseballs are extremely rare.

Roy Chesterfield was on the roster of the 1927 Yankees. "The New York Times" reported from Chicago on May 8, 1927, "Pitcher Roy Chesterfield returned to his home in Danville, Ill., today. He had been unable to throw normally and will take a rest in the hope of having his shoulder ailment disappear." On June 28, 1927, the Yankees released Roy Chesterfield. Other than Spring Training, Chesterfield never pitched in a major league game but he is standing in the top row with Ruth and Gehrig in the 1927 team photograph.

Certified by PSA/DNA and JSA

  • Notes: ERRATA: The PSA & JSA certifications date the ball to 1928. However our research proven that the inclusion of Roy Chesterfield would indicate that the ball dates from 1927.

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