Rawlings Official American League baseball has been hand-signed by Mickey Mantle (D. 1995, New York Yankees, HOF). Please note, the baseball is showing signs of natural toning.Mantle was one of the greatest offensive threats of any center fielder in baseball history. He has the second highest career OPS+ among center fielders (behind Mike Trout), and he had the highest stolen-base percentage in history at the time of his retirement. In addition, compared to the other four center fielders on the All-Century team, he had the lowest career rate of grounding into double plays, and he had the highest World Series on-base percentage and World Series slugging percentage. He also had an excellent .984 fielding percentage when playing center field. Mantle was able to hit for both average and power, especially tape-measure home runs, a term that was born when a play-by-play caller reacted to one of Mantle's 1953 home runs. He hit 536 career home runs, batted .300 or more ten times, and is the career leader (tied with Jim Thome) in walk-off with 13: 12 in the regular season and one in the post season. He is the only player in history to hit 150 home runs from both sides of the plate.Mantle is 16th all-time in home runs per at-bats. He is 17th in on-base percentage. He was safe three out of four times in which he attempted to steal a base. He won the MVP award three times, finished second three times, and finished within nine votes of winning five times.Mantle won the Triple Crown in 1956, when he led the major leagues in batting average (.353), home runs (52), and RBI's (130). He was an All Star for 16 seasons, playing in 16 of the 20 All-Star Games that were played during his career. He was an A.L. MVP three times and a Gold Glove winner once. Mantle appeared in 12 World Series including seven championships, and he holds World Series records for the most home runs (18), RBIs (40), extra-base (26), runs (42), walks (43), and total bases (123).Despite his accolades on the field, Mantle's private life was plagued with tumult and tragedy, including a well-publicized bout with alcoholism that led to his death from liver cancer on August 13.1995.The autograph includes a James Spence Authentication (JSA) Auction House LOA for authenticity purposes.Authentication: JSA ALOA