Whitey Ford Signed Baseball Yankees “HOF ’74” – COA JSA

Nicknamed “The Chairman of the Board”, Whitey Ford was an American professional baseball pitcher who played his entire 16-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Yankees. He was a 10-time All-Star and 6-time World Series champion. In 1961, he won both the Cy Young Award and World Series Most Valuable Player Award. Ford led the American League (AL) in wins three times and in earned run average (ERA) twice. He is the Yankees franchise leader in career wins (236), shutouts (45), innings pitched (​3,170 1⁄3), and games started by a pitcher (438; tied with Andy Pettitte). Ford was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.

Presented is an OAL (Budig) baseball autographed by Whitey Ford. He signed it on the sweet spot in blue ballpoint pen (“9”) with the inscription, “HOF ’74”. The ball itself shows toning from age.

Authentication: JSA Basic Cert & Sticker

This ball is from one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of autographed baseballs in the world. Altogether they were easily displayable in custom shelf form and alphabetically displayed nonetheless. The choice of medium was visually easy for the encyclopedic collector who put these together. It took several decades to amass these rare autographs of the most prominent entertainers, historical figures, and sports players.  It proved quite difficult to acquire autographs of non-ballplayers on such an odd object (a baseball) but diligence proved otherwise and that it’s possible. So, now with the collection complete and his shelves empty there’s only one thing left to do….bid on this item and start the challenge to see how far you can take it.