Trey

Mearto specialist

Thank you for contacting Mearto with your appraisal inquiry. The item being appraised is a 1961 or 62 New York Yankees souvenir baseball in a plastic display case. Unfortunately from the pictures provided, the baseball in your possession features stamped facsimile signatures as opposed to genuine autographs. The ball dates to 1961 or 62 rather than 1966 as Clevenger only played for the Yankees in 1961 and 1962. The telltale signs are the consistent width of many of the signatures, the uniform color of all signatures, the pressure of the signatures on the ball indicating stamping, and the lack of trailing ink from hand-signed signatures (as opposed the hard edges of stamped signatures). Moreover, the "T's" in Tom Tresh's signature overlap the baseball's seams without breaking the flow of the lettering, and the "G" in Tex Clevenger's signature fades and reappears in a manner consistent with stamping. Finally, Ed Ford is signed rather than "Whitey" Ford, and Truman Clevenger rather than "Tex". A very informative article about the history of stamped baseballs can be viewed at http://keymancollectibles.com/keymanletter3.htm. Based on sales of similar souvenir baseballs from the era, the Fair Market Value of this piece is $5 to $10.