Lelands laid out a full-page ad in the
New York Post looking for old sports stuff this week. A free appraisal for your item as well.
More than 40 years ago I was in an Irish saloon on 30th Avenue in Astoria, Queens talking baseball after work with some men of all ages - Brooklyn, the New York Giants, the Yankees. And Joe Adcock being the only man to have hit a home run over the left field roof at Ebbets Field. And the catch that Brooklyn's Al Gionfriddo made off of DiMaggio 457 feet away at Yankee Stadium in the '47 World Serious four months before I was born. Just gabbing about baseball as New York baseball fans.
I was talking to my left and caught a tap on my shoulder from a man sitting on the bar stool to my right. He was a quiet man and said, "I live around the corner and have something you might like." He left.
The man came back and handed me a baseball. He told me that his late father wrote some stuff for the
New York Post sports pages and had collected autographs on an old ball he carried for a lot of years. This ball has been sitting on a shelf for more than forty years at my house. I have no idea if it is authentic and "real" but I'm going to have it looked at by a professional. The bride and I do not need to catch any "quickie cash" (the teen bride has never been thrilled with a quickie) so I won't sell it in a hurry but it'd be nice to know if the ball is worth twenty cents or twenty grand.
The baseball to be appraised with the Lelands ad: