This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/8/2013
When Mickey Mantle made his debut with the Yankees, writer Leonard Schecter said of him, “He has a face as open as the part of America that he came from.” So there he was, a kid of nineteen, already heralded as the second coming of Babe Ruth, or at the very least the legitimate successor to Joe DiMaggio. “When he hits the ball, it even sounds different,” they said about him. “He’s got it in his body to be great,” added grizzled manager Casey Stengel, who had been around long enough to qualify as an expert. Such expectations are hard to measure up to, but Mantle did, and then some. He started slow with the Yankees, even finding himself farmed out to Kansas City for fine-tuning at one point in his rookie year of 1951. However, by the 1953 season, when Mantle wielded this bat for the Yankees, Mantle’s destiny had begun to take shape. In the Yankees victory over the Dodgers in the 1953 World Series, Mantle also his established his reputation for dominance in the Fall Classic, clouting two homers (including a grand slam) and posting seven RBI in the six game series. The offered Hillerich & Bradsby K55 signature model bat (32.1oz., 35 inches) was used by The Commerce Comet during the 1953 season, his third in the Major Leagues. This high-grade ash weapon features detailed and defined stampings and exhibits abundant evidence of use in the form of ball, cleat and bat-rack marks throughout. Grain swelling and checking on the hitting surface are apparent and the bat remains uncracked. Hillerich & Bradsby factory shipping records pinpoint this prize specifically to 1953. Includes a full LOA from John Taube of PSA/DNA (GU7).