CURT FLOOD - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED BASEBALL CO-SIGNED BY: JIM LONBORG, WALT DROPO, BOB GIBSON, MIKE TORREZ, DICK "MULE" DIETZ, BOB FELLER, RALPH "HAWK" BRANCA, ROY HOWELL, BOBBY THOMSON, FRANK BOLLING, DUKE SNIDER, RICK BOSETTI - HFSID 291295

CURT FLOOD CO-SIGNED BY: JIM LONBORG, WALT DROPO, BOB GIBSON, MIKE TORREZ, DICK "MULE" DIETZ, BOB FELLER, RALPH "HAWK" BRANCA, ROY HOWELL, BOBBY THOMSON, FRANK BOLLING, DUKE SNIDER, RICK BOSETTI
Montreal Expos souvenir baseball signed by a group of thirteen players including three Hall of Famers plus Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca!
Baseball signed: "Curt Flood", "Jim Lonborg", "Walt Dropo", "Bob Gibson", "Mike Torrez", "Dick Dietz", "Bob Feller", "Ralph Branca", "Roy Howell", "Bobby Thomson", "Frank Bolling", "Duke Snider" and "Rick Bosetti". Souvenir baseball imprinted with Montreal Expos Logo. In all 13 signers. CURT FLOOD (1938-1997), who roamed the St Louis Cardinals outfield from 1956 to 1969, was one of the best defensive center fieldersof all time, once playing 223 consecutive games without an error. A 3-time All-Star and 7-time Gold Glove winner, he played in all seven games of three World Series for the Cardinals. His challenge to the "reserve clause" was unsuccessful, by a 5-4 vote in the US Supreme Court, but helped pave the way to free agency five years later. JIM LONBORG (b. 1942) is mainly remembered for his gutsy performance in the 1967 WS, after a Cy Young 22-9, 246-strikeout career season. Lonborg and Triple Crown hitting star Carl Yastrzemski led the Sox to the pennant in a race settled on the final day of the season. In the WS, he won games 2 and 5, allowing only 5 hits total, and running up a 17-inning scoreless streak. By the seventh game and on only two days' rest, however, Lonborg finally gave out, losing a 7-2 decision. After the dream season, Lonborg suffered repeated injuries, starting with a ski accident, and was largely ineffective, winning just 27 more games for the Red Sox in the next four years. He pitched for the Phillies through 1979. WALT DROPO was the embodiment of his era. He was the strong, silent type, slow afoot but a deadly power hitter. He hit 152 career home runs, but had only five stolen bases. Dropo turned down an offer from football's Chicago Bears to sign with the Red Sox in 1947. He came up sensationally in 1950, starting on the All-Star team and winning AL Rookie of the Year honors with 34 homers, a .322 average, and a league-leading 144 RBI. Dropo's next best was 29 HR and 97 RBI two years later, but he never again had over 19 HR or hit over .281. In one brilliant stretch in July 1952, after being traded to Detroit, he collected 12 consecutive hits to tie a ML record. Included in the streak was a 7-for-7 performance in a doubleheader against Washington. BOB GIBSON (1935-2020) holds the major league record for lowest single-season ERA of 1.12 in 1968, the year he was the National League's Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Award winner. He also won the Cy Young Award in 1970. In his 17-year career, all with the St. Louis Cardinals, Gibson won 251 games including 56 shutouts. He was the first pitcher to strike out at least 200 batters in nine seasons and, in 1974, became the second pitcher in major league history to strike out at least 3,000 batters in a career (he joined Walter Johnson, who first notched 3,000 Ks way back in 1923!). Gibson was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1981, his first year of eligibility. MIKE TORREZ (b. 1946) won more than 15 games six seasons in a row (1974-79) for five different teams. The 6'5" Kansan first achieved consistency with the Expos in 1972, winning 16 games. In 1975 with Baltimore, he went 20-9 with a league-leading .690 winning percentage. He was sent to Oakland in the 1976 seven-player trade that brought Reggie Jackson to the Orioles. Torrez won 16 that year (including three straight shutouts) and 17 in 1977 for the A's and Yankees. He helped New York to a pennant with seven straight wins in July and August. He threw two complete-game victories in the '77 World Series against the Dodgers. DICK DIETZ (1941-2004) caught in the National League for eight seasons (1966-1973), mostly for the San Francisco Giants. His best season was 1970, when he hit .300 with 22 homers and 107 RBIs and homered in the ninth inning of the All-Star game. Dietz was involved in one of baseball's most controversial calls in 1968. With the bases loaded, Dietz was apparently hit by a pitch from Don Drysdale, which would have denied Drysdale a fifth straight shutout, tying a record set in 1904. The umpire ruled, however, that Dietz had not tried to get out of the way of the pitch. BOB FELLER (1918-2010, HOF 1962) has the most wins of any pitcher in Cleveland Indians history, and was the first pitcher since charter member Walter Johnson to be elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Though regarded as the fastest pitcher of his day, he himself attributed his strikeout records to his curve and slider. Feller set a ML record with 208 walks and led the AL in both strikeouts and wins from 1939 to 1941. He was voted All-Star in 1938-41, 1946-48 and in 1950. RALPH BRANCA (1926-2016), a 3-time All-Star and the winner of 21 games for the Dodgers in 1947, is most remembered as the relief pitcher who gave up the pennant-winning home run to Bobby Thomson ("the shot heard round the world") in the 1951 NL playoff. BOBBY THOMSON (1923-2010) hit what is perhaps the most famous home run in baseball history. His dramatic "shot heard 'round the world" on October 3, 1951, a three-run, ninth-inning homer off Brooklyn pitcher Ralph Branca, capped the Giants' historic comeback to win the NL pennant. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, the Staten Island Scot hit 24 or more homers six times in his seven full seasons with the Giants. Thomson had a comeback season for the Cubs in 1958, when he hit 21 homers and collected 82 RBI while batting .283. ROY HOWELL (b. 1953) was a Major League third baseman for 11 seasons (1974-1984), breaking in with the Texas Rangers and finishing his career with the Milwaukee Brewers. He played for the Blue Jays from 1978 to 1980 and was an All-Star in the first of those years. In 2011, he was named manager of the Road Warriors of the Atlantic League, a team that plays exclusively on the road. FRANK BOLLING (1931-2020) played six seasons each with the Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves (1954-1966). A fine defensive second baseman, Bolling won a Gold Glove in 1958 and was an All-Star in 1961 and 1962. When his brother Milt joined the Tigers in 1957, Frank became one of only four pairs of brothers to play middle infield together. (Since then, only Cal and Billy Ripken have done it.) Bolling hit a grand slam homer off Sandy Koufax in 1965. Edwin Donald DUKE SNIDER (1926-2011), played for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1947-1962, had a career batting average of .295 and hit 407 career homers and 1,333 RBIs. "The Silver Fox" - also called "the Duke of Flatbush" - led the league with 136 RBIs in 1955, and he hit four home runs in the 1952 and 1955 World Series games. In the glory years of New York baseball, Dodger fans argued passionately that their Duke was the equal of the cross-town rival center fielders, Mickey Mantle of the Yankees and Willie Mays of the Giants. Snider was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980. RICK BOSETTI (b. 1953) played in the Major Leagues from 1976 to 1982, with his best seasons in Toronto (1976-1981). He led AL outfielders in putouts in 1978, and in putouts and assists in 1979. Bosetti achieved his goal of urinating in the outfield of every Major League ballpark. Signatures somewhat faded and priced accordingly. Otherwise, fine condition.