1936 Jimmie Foxx Single Signed "Out of the Park" Home Run Baseball (JSA)

Auction: Winter Classic 2022

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1936 Jimmie Foxx Single Signed "Out of the Park" Home Run Baseball (JSA)

Historic Jimmie Foxx signed home-run ball dating from the 1936 season. This unique ball, which is accompanied by signed documentation from the original recipient, was used to record what was most likely the longest home run of Foxx's celebrated career. The blast took place at Chicago's Comiskey Park on June 16, 1936, in a game between Foxx's Red Sox and the White Sox. The Red Sox were defeated 4-2 that day, with both of their runs coming on solo blasts by Foxx, which represented his 15th and 16th home runs of the year. It was the first of those two, however, that, according to the report the next day in the Chicago Daily Tribune, “was the brand that no other man has knocked at Comiskey Park, a sock over the roof of the left field grandstand.” The report further adds that “Foxx, on surveying the flight of the ball after the game, remarked that it was the longest homer he ever hit. According to guards outside the park, the ball cleared the grandstand roof and came down in a handball court across 34th street. It traveled a block after coming down.” The recipient of the ball, Luther Olsen, has provided a one-page signed letter detailing how he obtained it the next day. In full:In the summer of 1936 I was working out with the White Sox and throwing batting practice. The Boston Red Sox came to Chicago and in one of the first games, Jimmy Foxx hit a ball over the left field pavilion, completely out of the baseball park. It was said at the time only two balls had been hit out of the park and Foxx had hit both of them. The next day as I reported to the park, Billie Webb who was White Sox coach, told me "I have a present for you," and gave me a ball and said, "here is the ball Jimmy hit out of the park." I took the ball and had Jimmy Foxx sign it. I did not mention what Billie Webb had told me because I wanted to take the ball home. As noted in the letter, Foxx obliged Olsen's autograph request, and signed the official American League (Harridge) ball on a side panel. Foxx’s signature, scripted in blue fountain pen, grades 6/10. The ball, which is moderately soiled, displays appropriate game use, including a few nicks and abrasions; telltale signs of its journey out of the park and down the street. Foxx single-signed balls have always been highly desirable among autograph collectors, especially vintage examples signed during his playing career. The offered ball, being not only a home run ball, but most likely the longest of his career, represents possibly the finest Foxx single imaginable. Full LOA from JSA. A copy of the front page of the June 17, 1936, edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune is included in the lot.