Description
Presented is an OAL (Budig) baseball autographed by Mario Andretti. He signed it on the sweet spot in a blue ballpoint pen (“9”).
Mario Andretti is an Italian-born American former racing driver and one of the most successful Americans in the history of the sport. He is one of only three drivers to have won races in Formula One, IndyCar, World Sportscar Championship, and NASCAR. To date, he remains the only driver ever to win the Indianapolis 500 (1969), Daytona 500 (1967), and the Formula One World Championship. No American has won a Formula One race since Andretti’s victory at the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix. Andretti had 109 career wins on major circuits.
Authentication: JSA Basic Cert & Sticker
This ball is from one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of autographed baseballs in the world. Altogether they were easily displayable in custom shelf form and alphabetically displayed nonetheless. The choice of medium was visually easy for the encyclopedic collector who put these together. It took several decades to amass these rare autographs of the most prominent entertainers, historical figures, and sports players. It proved quite difficult to acquire autographs of non-ballplayers on such an odd object (a baseball) but diligence proved otherwise and that it’s possible. So, now with the collection complete and his shelves empty there’s only one thing left to do….bid on this item and start the challenge to see how far you can take it.