THE 1961 NEW YORK YANKEES - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED BASEBALL CO-SIGNED BY: ART DITMAR, JIM COATES, BILL "MOOSE" SKOWRON, HECTOR LOPEZ, AL "LITTLE AL" DOWNING, BOBBY RICHARDSON, LUIS "YO-YO" ARROYO, WHITEY FORD, BOB TURLEY - HFSID 292015

1961 NEW YORK YANKEES
This signed Rawlings Official Major League baseball includes the signatures of nine team members of the World Series Champion New York Yankees, including World Series MVPs Bob Turley (1958) and Whitey Ford (1961)
Autographed Signed Baseball: "Whitey Ford", "Art Ditmar", "Jim Coates", "Bill Skowron", "Hector Lopez", "Al Downing", "Bobby Richardson", "Luis Arroyo" and "Bob Turley". Rawlings Official Major League baseball, Allan H. Selig, Commissioner, signed in blue ink. With PSA/DNA sticker affixed. The 1961 New York Yankees, who went 109-53 as sluggers Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris chased Babe Ruth's season home run record, easily bested the Cincinnati Reds in a 5-game World Series. The 61' Yanks are considered one of the greatest baseball teams of all time. EDWARD "WHITEY" FORD (1928-2020, HOF 1974) was the "money pitcher" on the great Yankee teams of the 1950s and early 1960s, called "Chairman of the Board". The wily southpaw's lifetime record of 236-106 gives him the best winning percentage (.690) of any 20th century pitcher. He paced the American League in victories three times, and in ERA and shutouts twice. The 1961 Cy Young Award winner still holds many World Series records, including 10 wins and 94 strikeouts, once pitching 33 consecutive scoreless innings in the Fall Classic. He has the most career wins in the history of the New York Yankees with 236.  ART DITMAR (born in 1929), an American League pitcher for 9 seasons, was on the familiar Kansas City - New York shuttle of the era, gaining experience with the Kansas City A's, then being traded to the Yankees, and returning to the A's when his best years were over. With the Yankees he was fourth and then third in the AL in earned run average (1959-1960), and went 15-9 in 1960. He pitched for the Yankees in three World Series (1957, 1958 and 1960). JIM COATES was a spot starter and reliever for the New York Yankees (1959-1962). An All-Star in 1960 and 1961, he pitched in the World Series those years and again in 1962. Coates has the best winning percentage of any pitcher with 20 or more wins (27-7, or .794%). BILL "MOOSE" SKOWRON joined the Yankees as a first baseman in 1954. A powerful opposite-field hitter, he topped the .300 mark five times with New York and was All-Star first baseman in 1960. A six-time All-Star, he became a hero of the 1958 World Series versus the Braves, driving in the winning run in Game Six, and hitting a three-run homer in the eighth inning of the final game. HECTOR LOPEZ spent 12 seasons in the American League (1955-1966), the first 4½ with the Kansas City A's and the rest with the New York Yankees. He appeared for the Yankees in five consecutive World Series (1959-1964). Surprisingly, however, his best seasons at the plate were in an Athletics uniform. The versatile Lopez played seven different field positions in his Major League career, everything except pitcher and catcher. AL DOWNING, born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1941, was a pitcher who played most of the 1960s with the New York Yankees and most of the 1970s with the Dodgers. He led the American League in strikeouts per nine innings in 1963 and in total strikeouts in 1964 (his only season with more than 200 strikeouts) and earned an appearance at the 1967 All-Star Game while with the Yankees. During his first year with the Dodgers in 1971, he recorded his only 20-win season and led the National League in shutouts He is the only player to witness both Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth's single season home run record on October 1, 1961 (he was in the Yankees bullpen) and Hank Aaron breaking Ruth's career home run record on April 8, 1974 (he threw the pitch!). BOBBY RICHARDSON played his entire career with the New York Yankees (1955-1966), playing second base on seven Yankee pennant-winners. He had great range and was particularly adept at turning the double play. Teamed with shortstop Kubek, he led the AL in double plays four times, and won five consecutive Gold Gloves. His sensational performance in the 1960 World Series won him Series MVP honors. He batted .367 with 11 hits, a grand slam, and eight runs scored, setting World Series records with 12 total RBI and 6 RBI in Game 3. In 1961, he tied records for a five-game Series with nine hits and 23 at-bats, for a .391 average. He dramatically ended the 1962 Series when he caught Willie McCovey's hard liner with two on and two out in the ninth inning of Game Seven to preserve the Yankees' 1-0 victory over San Francisco. LUIS ARROYO had only one outstanding Major League season, but that season was a legendary one. After a competent debut in 1955 as a St. Louis Cardinals starter, Arroyo spent five seasons in the Pirate and Yankee bullpens before coming into his own in the great Yankee season of 1961. Throwing his screwball as the Yankees bullpen ace that season, he won 15 games while losing only five, with an earned run average of 2.19 (1½ runs per game below the league average). He led the American League that year in games pitched, games finished (54), and games saved (29), and won a game in the World Series. BOB TURLEY (1930-2013) pitched for the New York Yankees from 1955-1962, pitching in five Yankee World Series. In 1956, he shut out the Brooklyn Dodgers through nine innings of Game Six, only to lose 1-0 when Jackie Robinson singled in the winning run in the tenth inning on a fly misjudged by Enos Slaughter. In 1958, Turley won the Cy Young Award, leading the AL with 21 wins, a .750 winning percentage, and 19 complete games. Though he was pounded by Milwaukee in the first inning of World Series Game Two, he shut them out in Game Five and won the Series finale with six-plus relief innings in Game Seven and was selected as the 1958 World Series MVP. Fine condition.