Found: Bill Mazeroski's 1960 World Series Home run baseball?

[JCC1968]

Guys

I know this sounds like a reach, but let me explain. Recently at a garage sale in Saraosta, FL, I went to a retirement village where they put everything out in their quad. I came across several baseballs, one was a baseball signed by Bill Jackowski (home plate umpire in this game?) I questioned one of the people working the sale and she said the couple where no longer alive who owned the ball and that it was the wife's husband's "prized possesion" From the 1960 world series homerun baseball that ended the series. He tried to get Mr. Mazeroski's to sign it but could only get Bill Jackowski to. Here is what I know and I will post pics if anyone is interested. The Facts as I know them:

1) Baseball is shows game use and rubbed down nice panteina on it.

2) Baseball has a huge spot where someone's bat made heavy contact.

3) It is a Warren Giles baseball

4) Bill Jackowski signed the baseball.

Has anyone claimed to have this baseball? Is it possible to docuement this baseball? Anyone have any thoughts?


Thanks
Jason

[33bird]

That's awesome. Did you buy it? How much? I have a Johnny Bench game used home run ball from July 3, 1976. A nice Feeney ball. I know it's real and I got a nice coa on it, etc. But-how do you ever really prove that it actually was the real deal? That's the only thing about Game used home run balls. But, I still like em' a lot.
Greg

[JCC1968]

Greg

Thanks for the post! My big problem is proving the baseball is what it is. I don't know if it is possible. The ticket stubs were sold before i got there. Can anyone in GUF help? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE


Jason

[corsairs25]

If I recall, the ball went over a 10 ft. brick wall and into a small grove of Cherry trees. I'm pretty sure there weren't any camera crews in a position to see where the ball hit or who got it. It certainly wasn't anyone who had a ticket. But who knows? Mark

[MSpecht]

In this video it looks like Maz is holding a ball (the HR ball ??) in the clubhouse......also at the end of the tape they are in the Pirates locker room and the commentator says "they converged around his (Maz' ?) locker and the clubhouse man came ....." and the video stops.....was he about to say "brought him the ball?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_al6s9BpmE

The clip is from The History Channel....that would be a good place to start....

Jackowski was a member of the umpire crew in the Series and in the 7th game, so that's a likely / possible connection to the Series at least...another starting point.

HR balls are difficult/impossible to authenticate unless a batboy got it and annotated it at the time, or possibly the player. I got what is supposed to be Dick Stuart's first A.L. home run ball....It is not signed, but printed on it is the following:

"First home run hit in American League -- against Washington Senators April 1962" ....then "Dick Stuart" is printed on the sweet spot. The printing on the sweet spot is different than the other printing....After alot of looking , I found a contract that Stuart had signed for an appearance some years later, and on it he printed a request for pick-up to and from the airport below his signature....his printing on the contract matches the printing on the ball, so I am pretty comfortable with it...My guess (speculation) is the bat boy or whoever retrieved the ball, printed Stuart's name on it for ID, then gave it to him later, and he (Stuart) printed the notation itself.

BTW ... Here's some 1960 World Series trivia --- who was was in the on-deck circle when Maz hit his game winning HR ? :

"I was kneeling in the on-deck circle, thinking I was going to be the hero. And all of a sudden, I was out on the field jumping around,'' Dick Stuart said in an interview with AP."

Good Luck.... it's a pretty cool ball no matter what.

Mike Jackitout7@aol.com

[ironmanfan]

I would suspect that the real ball would be in Cooperstown (you can shoot them an email to confirm). Nice item, though.

[JCC1968]

The homerun ball has never been found!!!! Could this be the one? I will post pics.

Jason


Jason,
It is not. According to a recent piece in USA Today's Sports Weekly, the whereabouts of the ball are unknown.
Best,
Freddy Berowski
Research Associate
National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum
A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Library
25 Main Street
Cooperstown, NY 13326
fberowski@baseballhalloffame.org
research@baseballhalloffame.org
607-547-0335
607-547-4094 (FAX)

[JCC1968]

Hi

I am going to post pics tonight of this baseball. I would like everyone to chime in.

Thanks

Jason

[Canseco44]

Did you buy the ball, and if you did how much if you don't mind saying. I think this would be an awesome story if it turns out to be the ONE. I hope for you it works out.

Todd

[JCC1968]

Guys

Here are the pics of the baseball.

1) bat marks

2) Landing mark

3) umpires signature

4) Warren Giles baseball


What do you think?

[karamaxjoe]

Jason,
My opinion is it's impossible to authenticate your ball as the Maz ball. Even though you have a nice story and a ball that matches up with the era, you're going to need someone such as Mazeroski, the ump or an official with the team to corroborate the story. If the story is true then the previous owner was at fault for not puting his face in front of a camera right after the series. If I'm correct a fan named Sal Durant caught Maris's 61 ball and was a celebrity for a few days. You would need something like that to help authenticate the ball. Without it you have a nice ball and a good story, but no historical ball.

Mike

[karamaxjoe]

Jason,
I Googled Mazeroski and found this story on a couple websites. Who knows if it's true, but it doesn't help the validity of your ball.

Maz's ninth-inning homer gives Pirates Game 7 Series win


By BRUCE LOWITT
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 3, 1999
The grainy black-and-white movie shows leftfielder Yogi Berra slowing to a halt, looking up at Forbes Field's ivy-covered wall, waiting for the ball to bounce back to him, waiting to hold Bill Mazeroski to a double. Maybe even to a single.
The ball never bounced back.
By the time it landed just beyond the left-centerfield wall in a vacant lot adjoining Schenley Park, the Pittsburgh Pirates were baseball's 1960 champions, 10-9 winners over the New York Yankees in the seventh game of the first World Series to be decided by a home run.
"I can't believe it," Berra said. Teammate Dale Long chimed in: "I'll never believe it."
The home run came on Ralph Terry's second pitch in the ninth. Mazeroski all but flew around the bases, cap in hand, arms waving, celebrating the Pirates' first world championship in 35 years.
The victory helped dim some Pirates fans' memories of the previous New York-Pittsburgh World Series, a four-game sweep by baseball's best team ever, the 1927 Yankees.
And one could say Mazeroski's home run also was a thank you of sorts for manager Danny Murtaugh, who introduced Mazeroski to his wife, the former Milene Nicholson, one of the Pirates' front-office employees.
It was fitting the Pirates won on a homer. The Yankees out-homered them 10-4 and outscored them 55-27.
New York's powerful bats pounded Pittsburgh into submission in three of the first six games by scores of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0. But margin means nothing, only the number of victories, and the Pirates scratched out 6-4, 3-2 and 5-2 wins preceding Game7.
Pittsburgh took a 4-0 lead in the give-and-take seventh game on Rocky Nelson's two-run homer in the first inning and Bill Virdon's two-run single in the second. Moose Skowron homered for the Yanks in the fifth, and New York added four runs in the sixth, three on a Berra homer. When the Yanks scored twice in the eighth to lead 7-4, they appeared on the verge of winning their 19th World Series and manager Casey Stengel's eighth.
But the biggest events can turn on the tiniest things, in this case a pebble and a momentary lapse.
With Gino Cimoli on first for the Pirates in the eighth, Virdon hit what appeared to be a routine double-play grounder at Tony Kubek. But the ball hit a pebble and took a high hop, striking the Yankees shortstop in the throat. It sent him sprawling -- and to the hospital with a bruised larynx.
Virdon was safe at first.
The Pirates exploited the opportunity. Dick Groat hit a run-scoring single and, two outs later, Roberto Clemente hit a weak grounder toward Skowron, playing deep behind first base. But pitcher Jim Coates didn't cover first. Skowron had to hold the ball. Clemente was safe, Virdon scored, Groat went to third -- and the next batter, Hal Smith, slammed a home run over the leftfield wall.
Terry got the final out in the eighth. The Yankees tied it at 9 with two runs in the ninth, then Terry served up the gopher ball to Mazeroski.
Mazeroski said it was a high fastball. Terry, asked to confirm that, replied morosely: "I don't know what the pitch was. All I know is it was the wrong one." Andy Jerpe, 14, of Pittsburgh retrieved the ball and brought it to the Pirates' locker room to present it to Mazeroski. Mazeroski autographed it and returned it to the boy, saying: "You keep it, son. The memory is good enough for me."

[Ripken]

The name Andy Jerpe doesn't yield any other results in a Google search. A search of phone #s doesn't show his name either. He'd be 60 or 61 today. That would be one place to start looking. I'd also talk to anyone at the sale where you bought the ball (neighbors, etc) to find out what they know about the actual history of the ball. Looks like it was handled quite a bit over the years.

[JCC1968]

Guys

Thanks for your help! If we can get this authenticated and someday when I sell it I will cut you in for a percentage! :) I am having the ball signed by Mr. Mazeroski in May. He is going to look at the ball as well and give his opinion on it. Also would like to get Mr.Terry to sign it as well. No one knows anything about this possible piece of baseball history and I would love to prove it. I wish someone was still alive to help us.


Jason

[CollectGU]

I'm curious. How will having him look at the ball prove anything? It seems to me that you need to trace this ball back to Andy Jerpe or one of his family members for this to have any value.

Regards,

Dave

[karamaxjoe]

The one thing that doesn't add up is the newspaper article claims Maz signed the ball and gave it back to the kid. Jason's ball does not have a Maz signature.

Mike

[JCC1968]

Guys

The Hall of Fame has no record of anything signed on the Mazeroski baseball. Nothing has been proven either way. It is all hear say at this point. I am hoping maybe Mazeroski can clear up if he did or did not sign the baseball in May.

Jason

[bobw]

Found this AP article on Newspaper archive from the Syracuse Post Standard from October 14, 1960

Maz Returns Home Run Ball To Youngster

PITTSBURGH (AP)-The home run ball which beat the New York Yankees 10-9 Thursday for the 1960 World Series title becomes the souvenir of a 14-year-old Pittsburgh schoolboy. Andy Jerpe was waiting in a vacant lot outside Forbes Field and retrieved the ball which Bill Mazeroski hit over the left center field fence for the deciding run. Later the boy brought the ball to the Pittsburgh dressing room
to present it to the Pirate second baseman. Mazeroski autographed it and turned it back to the boy. "You keep it, son," Mazeroski said. "The memory is good enough for me.

[CollectGU]

Unfortunately, I think these two stories corrobrate that it was signed by him and pretty much kills this ball as being the one....Other's agree?

Dave