Lot # 777: 1964 Washington Senators Team-Signed Baseball with (28) Signatures Including Gil Hodges Sweet Spot - Full JSA LOA

In 1964, the Washington Senators moved up a notch in American League pecking order, climbing from a dead last tenth place finish in 1963, to ninth place in 1964. The bright spot for this expansion club was their manager, future Hall of Famer Gil Hodges. A total of (28) members of the 1964 Senators squad are counted on the offered team-signed baseball, including Hodges. A souvenir model stamped with "Senators", this period signed ball retains decent labeling integrity. While most of the signatures are faint, fate has been kind to the Hodges sweet spot autograph, which shows as one of the three most prominent signatures, along with Don Zimmer on the north panel, and Bill Skowron on the south panel.

The list of discernible signatures is as follows:

Sweet spot: Gil Hodges (HOF, d.1972);

North panel: Chuck Hinton, Jim Duckworth, Ed Brinkman, Don Zimmer;

South panel: Danny O'Connell (coach), Bill Skowron, Jim Hannan;

East panel: Hobie Landrith, "Buster" Narum, Dave Stenhouse, Chuck Cottier, Alan Koch;

West panel: Ken Hunt, Claude Osteen, Marshall Bridges, Jim King, Mike Brumley.

Also reported on the accompanying LOA among the notables, are Ed Yost and Ron Kline.

Full LOA from James Spence/JSA.