The highest price ever paid for a signed baseball is $191,200! It is about a Joe DiMaggio Marilyn Monroe dual signed baseball, that was sold for that price at Auction, held on May 6, 2006! But the baseball that can exceed this amount is New York Yankees team-signed baseball, signed by both Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, and still bearing Marilyn’s lipstick, kept in a box in a closet for years. It is expected to bring in excess of $20,000 when it is offered as part of the Vintage Sports Collectibles Platinum Auction in Chicago on August 4.
Mark Jordan, consignment director for Heritage Auctions which is hosting the sale, said: Let’s just say that this baseball lived a dream shared by countless millions of red-blooded American males, smooched by the definitive blonde bombshell at her most famous. I would say that this thing could mount a substantial challenge for the title of most desirable post-war signed baseball on earth.
The ball is one of 15 signed by the 1952 World Champion Yankees, which were then given to the players of a softball team who won a league organised by film studios 20th Century Fox. It was given to sound editor Eddie D’Orazio and, following his death in 1969, it was passed down to his eldest son. The ball symbolises the love affair between Marilyn and Joe, who were the most famous American couple at the time.
I was only six years old when my dad got this ball, said D’Orazio’s son. It was always in the house with us when I lived with my parents, then it came to me, as the oldest son, when dad died in 1969. I thought it was a really neat heirloom, so to speak, and something that I always attached to the memory of my dad – he was only 55 when he died – so it was a connection between us, he said. I knew it needed to be protected so I kept it in a box in the closet unless I wanted to show it somebody, maybe once every couple of years. [Heritage Auctions]
1952 New York Yankees Team Signed Baseball with Joe DiMaggio & Marilyn Monroe, Kissed by Marilyn!
