GIL HODGES - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED BASEBALL CO-SIGNED BY: YOGI BERRA, JOE CHRISTOPHER, JIM HICKMAN, PHIL "SUPERSUB" LINZ, ED CHARLES, JOE PIGNATANO, DON ZIMMER, HERMAN FRANKS, ED KRANEPOOL, BUD HARRELSON, WILLIE "SAY HEY KID" MAYS, TOMMIE AGEE, DEAN CHANCE, BILL SHORT, AL (ALVIN N.) JACKSON - HFSID 289955

NEW YORK METS
"Dean Chance" model baseball, signed by twenty players and coaches from the 1960s and 1970s
Baseball signed: "Gil Hodges", "Yogi Berra", "Willie Mays", "Herman Franks" (sweet spot), "Dean Chance" [above his printed name], "Bud Harrelson", "Don Zimmer", "Ed Charles", "Tommie Agee", "Joe Pignatano", "Ed Kranepool", "Phil Linz, "Joe Christopher, "Jim Hickman", "Bill Short, "Al Jackson". Hollander Dean Chance league model baseball, made in Jamaica. Signed by these andby four  unidentified ballplayers, all or nearly all associated with the New York Mets during the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. Signers range from Hall of Fame caliber ballplayers and managers to obscure players whom only a die-hard Mets fan could love. GIL HODGES (1924-1972), who played first base for the Dodgers (1943, 1947-1961) and was an original member of the New York Mets (1962-1963), tied the Major League record of four home runs in one game on August 31, 1950. He drove in 100 runs in seven consecutive seasons (1949-1955) and drove in both runs in the seventh game of the 1955 World Series, giving the Brooklyn Dodgers their only World Championship. Hodges managed the Washington Senators (1963-1968) and then the New York Mets from 1968 until a fatal heart attack in Florida, April 2, 1972. He led the Miracle Mets, who had been chronic losers in their first seven seasons, to a World Championship in 1969. YOGI BERRA led the American League in games caught and chances accepted eight times, and led the league in double plays six times. He is one of only four catchers to ever field 1.000 in a season (1958), and between July 28, 1957 and May 10, 1959, Berra set major league records by catching in 148 consecutive games and accepting 950 chances without making an error. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. Berra was named the Yankees' manager for the 1964 season. The day after the Series ended, the Yankees fired him. He took over as the Mets' manager in 1972 and led them to the NL pennant in 1973, joining Joe McCarthy as the second manager to win pennants in both leagues. Considered by many the greatest player of all time, WILLIE MAYS was the prototype of the complete player; he hit for average and power, ran the bases with intelligence and speed, played a spectacular centerfield, and possessed a great arm. He was also remarkably durable, playing in at least 150 games for 13 consecutive seasons. Mays was an All-Star in 1954-1973, he received the Most Valuable Player Award in 1954 and 1965 and the Gold Glove in 1957-68. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979. On May 4, 1966, Mays passed Mel Ott's 19-year-old record of 511 National League home runs and finished his career with a total of 660, ranking him third on the all-time list behind Henry Aaron's 755 and Babe Ruth's 714. He retired with a .302 batting average. Mays finished out his career with the Mets (1972-1973), returning to the City where he had shot to stardom. Outfielder TOMMIE AGEE (1942-2001) was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1966, becoming the first Chicago White Sox player to hit 20 home runs and steal 20 bases in the same season. He is best remembered, however, for his four years with the New York Mets, especially the Miracle Mets of 1969. Always a fine fielder, Agee had robust offensive seasons as well in 1969 and 1970. The NL Comeback Player of the Year (1969), he also starred in Game 3 of the World Series, hitting a home run off Jim Palmer and making two spectacular catches. Agee was a 2-time All-Star and 2-time Gold Glove. All-Star shortstop BUD HARRELSON joined the team in 1965, playing 13 of his 16 seasons with the Mets, including the '69 championship and the '73 pennant. He managed the Mets in 1990-1991.  Like Hodges, catcher JOE PIGNATANO and 1B/OF ED KRANEPOOL were original Mets, playing through the ignominy of that expansion season of 1962 (a 40-120 record under manager Casey Stengel, who asked, "Can't anybody here play this game?"). DON ZIMMER, an original Met and former Dodger 3B, never managed the Mets, but coached the Yankees and managed four other teams, including the Red Sox and Cubs. Pignatano, like Hodges a former Dodger, went on to a distinguished career as a coach with the Mets (1968-1981) and other teams. ED KRANEPOOL played his entire 19-year career with the Mets, including the 1969 Miracle Mets World Championship under Hodges and the 1973 pennant winner under Berra.  Three more original Mets signing here are outfielders JOE CHRISTOPHER and JIM HICKMAN and pitcher AL JACKSON. Hickman, playing for the rival Cubs, later worried Mets fans by keeping Chicago close to the New Yorkers in the 1969 race. Jackson lost 53 games for the Mets in their first three seasons. (At 32-53, his record was better than the team's. It's rather surprising that a company would market a baseball under the name of DEAN CHANCE, but chance did win 128 Major League games in 11 seasons, including 20 games won for the 1964 Angels and the 1967 Twins. He only appeared in three games for the Mets, with a record of 0-1 and a 13.50 earned run average in 1970. Utility infielder PHIL LINZ, who won two World Series rings with the New York Yankees, played his final two seasons with the Mets (1967-1968). Third baseman ED CHARLES (1933-2018) also played his final two seasons with the Mets, but these were 1968-1969, so Charles was part of the Miracle Mets of the latter year, playing in 4 games of the World Series. BILL SHORT pitched in relief for the 1968 team. HERMAN FRANKS, another ex-Dodger but from an earlier era (1940-1941), is more closely associated with the Chicago Cubs, where he was manager and general manager in the 1970s and through 1981. He had no known association with the Mets, but does deserve a place in the history of New York baseball. As a coach for the New York Giants in 1951, he was stealing signs for manager Leo Durocher in the playoff series against the Dodgers, setting the stage for Bobby Thomson's "shot heard round the world" off Dodger reliever Ralph Branca. Some signatures lightly faded. Otherwise, fine condition. Accompanied by PSA/DNA LOA.