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Baseball Signed by Twenty-Nine of America's First Thirty Astronauts....
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Sold on Apr 21, 2010 for:
$13,145.00
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Description
The most astonishing astronaut-signed baseball we've ever encountered.
Baseball Signed by Twenty-Nine of America's First Thirty Astronauts. An Official National League Spalding baseball, Warren C. Giles signature, with the autographs of all but one of the first three astronaut group members as chosen by NASA. The signatures by selection group are as follows.Group One "Mercury Seven" (announced April 1959): "Scott Carpenter"; "D K Slayton" (1924-1993); "Wally Schirra" (1923-2007); "Alan Shepard" (1923-1998); "J H Glenn Jr"; "Gus Grissom" (1926-1967); and "Gordon Cooper" (1927-2004).
Group Two "The New Nine" (announced September 1962): "Frank Borman"; "Charles Conrad Jr" (1930-1999); "Thomas P Stafford"; "James A. McDivitt"; "Ed White" (1930-1967); "Neil Armstrong"; "Elliot See" (1927-1966); "James Lovell"; and "John Young".
Group Three "The Fourteen" (announced October 1963): "Charlie Bassett" (1931-1966); "Bill Anders"; "Dick Gordon"; "Walt Cunningham"; "Dave Scott"; "Rusty Schweickart"; "C Williams" (1932-1967); "Alan L Bean"; "Donn Eisele" (1930-1987); "Buzz Aldrin"; "Gene Cernan"; "Michael Collins"; and "Roger B Chaffee" (1935-1967).
The only missing astronaut from these groups is Theodore Freeman of the third group. He tragically perished in a training mission plane crash on October 31, 1964, about a year after his selection as an astronaut. He was never selected for a spaceflight.
Included in this remarkable assemblage of American heroes are the signatures of: the first American in space; the first American in orbit; the first American to walk in space; all crewmembers of the Mercury and Gemini missions; eight of the twelve men that have walked on the moon (including the first five); and fourteen of the twenty-four men that have flown to the moon. Altogether, these twenty-nine astronauts flew on a total of fifty-six space missions.
The consignor purchased this baseball approximately sixteen years ago. We speculate that the original owner might have been connected with the Houston Astros, a National League team. This is an absolutely astounding piece of space memorabilia (and American history) that is sure to cause excitement among both space and sports collectors. It is almost inconceivable that another ball such as this will ever be offered at auction. The condition of the ball is very fine; the signatures were accomplished in various colors and types of ink and it appears that several of the blue ink examples have faded somewhat. Please see the series of high-resolution photos on our website for a detailed look at condition.
Auction Info
2010 April Grand Format Space Exploration Auction #6037 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
April, 2010
21st
Wednesday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 4
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 5,587
Buyer's Premium per Lot:
19.5% of the successful bid per lot.
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