1955-1965 New York Yankees Mickey Mantle Game-Used Cap - From Pete Sheehy!

Sold For:

$52,875

Year:

1956

Auction:

2007 Spring

Lot #:

1277

Category:

Post-1900 Baseball Memorabilia

This New York Yankees cap dates to height of the club's 1950s/early 1960s baseball dynasty and can be strongly attributed to Mickey Mantle. The navy cap features the team's familiar "NY" logo embroidered in white stitching on the front. Mantle's uniform number ("7") appears on the underside of the brim in vintage black marker. A Tim McAuliffe label appears along the backside of the interior leather headband. The size ("7 1/4") is stamped in black on the side of the headband. The cap displays evidence of moderate-to- heavy wear including perspiration stains on the brim. The bill of the cap also displays a distinctive "break," the slant of which is similar to other known Mantle caps. The cap has the significant provenance of originating directly from the Yankees longtime equipment manager Pete Sheehy. Decades ago Sheehy gave the cap to a friend of his as a gift and it is accompanied by a letter detailing this from the son of the gentleman who received it from Sheehy. The cap is also accompanied by one of the most detailed and strongly worded MEARS authentication letters we have ever seen. In its three-page letter detailing its research, MEARS makes note, among many other research comments, that all of the physical aspects of the cap positively date it with certainty to the 1955-1965 manufacturing period, that the size of the cap is identical to other known Mantle exemplars, and significant observations are even cited relating to the placement and direction of the "break" in the brim. (Extensive MEARS research has gone to the trouble of noting that the placement and direction of the break on the cap ("to the right") is consistent with referenced Corbis photo images of Mantle during the period 1955 through 1965.) Mantle uniforms are six figures, and while game-used bats are far more reasonably valued (though still usually tens of thousands of dollars), there are many more surviving Mantle bats than Mantle caps. A cap, not unlike a jersey, is a personal memento that retains something of the aura of a player. Fans can relate to baseball players in a manner that is more immediate than football players, precisely because they look a lot like "regular people" and their faces are not hidden under the armor of a helmet: you can recognize them. And when a fan pictures a baseball icon, such as Mickey Mantle, on the field, the player's face is almost always framed by his cap. A cap, of course, is not a jersey, and it's not as expensive as a jersey, but in many ways it is just as personal, and just as significant as an on-the-field symbol representing the player. For Mantle, we believe a cap is also an even rarer game-worn item than a jersey. This is an exceptional Mantle game cap in all respects and the only example we have ever had the privilege to offer. LOA from Dave Bushing & Troy Kinunen/MEARS. Reserve $5,000. Estimate $10,000+ SOLD FOR $52,875.00