Babe Ruth 100th Anniversary Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/12/2014
From the 1950's through the 1970's, the most coveted award in sports was the Hickok Belt. The winner, selected from over 300 sportswriters, represented the greatest athlete of that calendar year. Muhammad Ali, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Arnold Palmer, Jim Brown and Joe Namath are a good cross-section of the kind of athletic superstars that received this award.
When it comes to the year 1961, it isn't hard to guess who the Hickok Belt winner was - Roger Maris. His 61 home runs that summer broke not just the greatest record in baseball but the greatest one in all of sports. It was during the awards ceremony that this extraordinary baseball was obtained from Maris by Madison Square Garden boxing promoter and International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Murray Goodman. The Cronin Official American League ball has been signed by the new home run champ in black ink (9/10) with the added inscription of "61 Homeruns in a year, 1961".
Maris was an extremely humble and private man and being thrust into the limelight proved to have adverse effects on the man. That is why it is so rare to find a signed Maris ball accompanied by his handwritten acknowledgement of his greatest achievement - and this ball has the added bonus of a rock-solid provenance dating it to that famous of all seasons - 1961. Just shy of his actual number 61 home run ball, this 1961 dated and signed ball has to be the ultimate Roger Maris signed baseball in existence. Baseball comes with a letter of provenance from Murray Goodman's grandson Brian Goodman, as well as full LOA's from JSA (X56346) and PSA/DNA (T10818).