[BrandonG]

My Mom works at a college here in Southern California. She has been employed there for over 35 years, and has made some great friends over that time span. She took a few copies of my books to her long time friend, and retired 84 year old Athletics Director & baseball coach to show them off. He was so impressed with the books and was so excited to see that her long time friend's son had made them that he wanted to meet me in person. He told my mother that he had a Babe Ruth signed baseball that his cousin gave him 60+ years ago before he died of Parkinson's disease.

Here was the story I was told (prior to meeting him). His cousin worked for Ford Motor Company in Detroit in the 1940's, and in the late part of 1947, Babe Ruth joined with Ford to start some type of youth baseball camp. He traveled to Detroit and met with the top executives of Ford (the cousin included) and signed some baseballs for them. He said his cousin later died of Parkinson's and handed him down the ball.

My first thoughts were, it's a secretarial, or one of the Sinclair type of baseballs signed by someone else. When I finally met my mom's friend today, and he pulled out the ball, my eyes nearly bugged out of my head! The ball pictured below is the ball that was GIVEN to this gentleman, and the provenance that goes with it is astounding! I didn't get a chance to snap pictures of everything, but here is a list of what he had:

- Original picture of his cousin, Ruth, Ruth's nurse, and the rest of the Ford top brass.

- Original paperwork describing what the youth camp was to be.

- Original documents with itinerary of Ruth's visit to the plant.

- And a few other Ford docs about the event. All dating 1947.

The ball as you can see is amazing, and despite the light making it look yellowish, it's pristine and a pearl! The ball was in a paper sack! You can't really see the stamping, but it is definitely a 1947 Reach OAL Harridge Ball.

The first thing he said to me was, Brandon, I love your mother so much, you can have the ball! I almost died until I saw the smirk in his eye. He was joking of course. But aside from my excitement about seeing the ball, he wanted to know what I thought it was worth. I had no idea really, I told him in a retail setting it could fetch $30K, but I'm not sure, I think it could possibly go for more. I Was wondering what you guys thought this ball could sell for in the right auction, with all of the documents of provenance.