Description
Sally Ride was an American astronaut and physicist. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983. Ride was the third woman in space overall, after USSR cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982). Ride remains the youngest American astronaut to have traveled to space, having done so at the age of 32. After flying twice on the Orbiter Challenger, she left NASA in 1987. She served on the committees that investigated the Challenger and Columbia Space Shuttle disasters, the only person to participate in both.
Presented is an ONL (Coleman) baseball autographed by Sally Ride. She signed it on the sweet spot in black felt tip pen (“9”). The ball itself shows toning from age as well as mild surface wear in a spot from previous display.
Authentication: JSA Full Letter
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.