From the dawn of a dynasty comes the offered 1928 Philadelphia Athletics team-signed OAL Johnson baseball with (26) autographs including six Cooperstown inductees. The blue-and-red-stitched sphere is covered by a coating of period shellac. The black-and-blue steel-tip fountain pen scripts generally range from (“5-7”) for the west/east panels and sweet spot while the majority of the north/south panels have been rendered unreadable due to significant abrasions. Interestingly, the west panel bears an inscription in an unknown hand reading Athletics 14-Boston 2-Grove 9/1/28 Ruffing. Such notation leads to the high probability that the sphere is game-used. Highlights include Sweet Spot: Foxx (“5-6”), Speaker (“5-6”), d.1958); West Panel: Cochrane (“5”), C. Mack (“7”, d.1956); East Panel: Ehmke (“6”, d.1959), A. Simmons (“7”, d.1956) and North Panel: Grove (“2”). Full photo LOA from JSA. More on our website.

Sweet Spot: Foxx, Speaker (d.1958); West Panel: Cochrane, C. Mack (d.1956), Perkins, B. Miller; East Panel: Hale, Ehmke (d.1959), Rommel, A. Simmons (d.1956), Bush, Orwoll; North Panel: E. Mack. Grove, Haas; South Panel: Reverse Sweet Spot: Dykes