A baseball signed by Babe Ruth and described in the auction catalog by GM Lee Trythall as "possibly the nicest Babe Ruth ball I've ever seen," was the biggest seller in the November Coach's Corner Sports and Celebrity auction, selling for $6,360.
A Lloyd Waner signature, considered the rarest of the signed early series Perez-Steele Hall of Fame art postcards, was the second highest seller, changing hands for $2,815. The Ruth ball was a red-laced deBeer & Sons Official League ball and graded at 8.5 overall. Since Waner passed away in 1982 there are few examples of this signed postcard (issued in 1982) in existence.
Babe Ruth's signature figured in a few other top items as well. A "Pennant" trademarked ball signed by Ruth and Lou Gehrig sold for $2,218, while his signature appearing on a 1939 Baseball Centennial first-day-cover - along with Cy Young, Ty Cobb and Larry Lajoie - sold for $1,277. The other half of the legendary Yankee tandem, Gehrig, figured in two other items generating a winning bid of $2,100 for a vintage signed Louisville Slugger bat and $1,108 for a signed vintage TruSport baseball.
A cut signature bearing the signature of Abraham Lincoln and the words "Executive Mansion" and the date June 1, 1862, sold for $1,733.
Other top selling items included a Frank "Home Run" Baker signed Official American League ball that went for $1,596, a Mike Piazza game-used New York Mets catcher's mitt sold for $1,572, a dozen signed Joe DiMaggio 1994 World Series balls brought $1,413, a signed Dizzy Dean Spalding baseball went for $1,158 and a signed "Introducing the Beatles" album sold for $1,108.
In a close politically themed race an Official Major League baseball signed by both President Bill and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as Al and Tipper Gore, sold for $1,055 edging, by $5, an Official Major League baseball signed by President George Herbert Walker Bush and his wife Barbara, and President George W. Bush and his wife Laura.
