Has anyone seen/owned a Hall of Fame Induction Ball?

[bigtrain]

To be clear, Mr. McCoy won the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for excellence in baseball writing, a high honor that he richly deserved. However, that is not the same as "induction" which is reserved for players, managers and executives. I have been to many inductions and spend about 10 weeks out of the year in Cooperstown but have never seen such a ball.

[mschwade]

Originally Posted by bigtrain

To be clear, Mr. McCoy won the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for excellence in baseball writing, a high honor that he richly deserved. However, that is not the same as "induction" which is reserved for players, managers and executives. I have been to many inductions and spend about 10 weeks out of the year in Cooperstown but have never seen such a ball.

Thanks for clarifying.

[mschwade]

OK.. Pulled the ball out and studied it more at lunch. It appears that the balls were made specifically for a private party that he had in Cooperstown during the Hall of Fame weekend. Still cool though! So happy that he gave it to me!

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by mschwade

OK.. Pulled the ball out and studied it more at lunch. It appears that the balls were made specifically for a private party that he had in Cooperstown during the Hall of Fame weekend. Still cool though! So happy that he gave it to me!

Matt,
I have several scarce items like this from Nolan Ryan's HOF Induction in 1999, but no ball like you're describing. I don't believe that they had such an item in 1999, FWIW.

Some interesting items to note that I did manage to get at the 1999 Induction are:

1) A Texas Rangers Nolan Ryan brunch ticket (spectacular in graphcs and color) that were given to close friends of the Ryan's

2) A special golf ball with the 1999 HOF Induction logo including Ryan, Brett, Yount and Cepeda. A sleeve of these were given to each of the HOF'ers that played in the HOF golf event at The Leatherstocking GC in Cooperstown. I was fortunate to get invited to play in the event in a foursome in front of Larry and Robin Yount. I had a chance to chat with Robin Yount and also get my photo taken with him after we finished up at 18. He was awesome!! BTW, Robin Yount is quite a golfer. Did anyone ever know that he almost quit golf to attempt to play on the PGA Tour?

3) I also have Nolan Ryan's golf bag tag from this golf event. It was a gift directly from Ryan. Pretty cool!!