Vintage Baseball Question

[Fergman1978]

I picked this up as part of a lot at auction as part of a lot that included a 1979 AS Ball and 1979 WS Ball and was wondering if anyone has seen this ball before. From what I can gather it is pretty rare. I have been trying to find as much info as I can on the series but even that is tough to come by.

[murphusa]

nothing special, made for the game and then reproduced for the collectables market

[william_9]

Those are actually pretty desirable, and fairly hard to come by. Not sure what's up with the hole, but that's at least the second that I've seen in that condition. They might have been mounted as presentation pieces. Nice surprise throw-in!

[Fergman1978]

I believe it was mounted with the AS and WS balls since they all had the hole. This ball came from the personal collection of Warner Fusselle who was most famous for his work with Mel Allen on This Week in Baseball.

[thecatspajamas]

Rawlings game balls with commemorative stamping, while commonplace today, were a new innovation in the late 1970's and early examples are quite tough to come by today. The 1979 WS and AS balls are MUCH easier to find, making this the key ball of the lot. The hole from mounting doesn't help, but is likely made up for with scarcity. As far as value, I have no idea. Short write-up here:
http://photos.bigleaguebaseballs.com/Rawlings%20Official%20International-MLB%20Game%20Balls/rawlings-1979-mlb-japan-series-baseball.jpg.php