I took a bit of a leap of faith when I bought this baseball in a well-known auction house's event about 12-13 years ago. The writing on the sweet spot reads "Caught in Cleveland during 3rd game of 1954 World Series."
In addition to the autographs of Giants players Hank Thompson, Willie Mays, Johnny Antonelli, Ruben Gomez, Bill Taylor and Don Mueller, there also are signatures of Giants legend Carl Hubbell and comedian Joe E. Brown. There's little doubt in my mind that the writing on the sweet spot and the autographs were placed on the ball in the same time frame. I figure if this ball was created to deceive, adding the signature of Brown, and to a lesser extent, Hubbell, was a stroke (pun intended) of brilliance.
There's no way to positively prove this ball was used the in the '54 Series, but I'm satisfied to think it was.
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