Mail From Michael - Mickey Vernon Signed Baseball

I made a deal recently with my good friend, Michael, when I purchased this baseball off of him a few weeks before my wife's surgery (back when I had money).  The ball is signed by Mickey Vernon and is a Rawlings Gold Glove baseball.

Vernon (b. 1918 - d. 2008) never actually won a Gold Glove award during his playing days (1939 to 1943 and 1946 to 1960).  He played for the Senators, Indians, Red Sox, Braves and Pirates, the latter during their championship season in 1960.  Vernon never played in the post season.  He was a two-time batting champ (1946 - .353; 1953 - .337) and finished as high as 3rd in the AL MVP voting (1953).

Vernon closed his career with 2,495 hits, 172 home runs and a career average of .286.  One would think that he would have gotten more support for the Hall of Fame, had he not missed two seasons to World War II.  He was on the ballot for 15 years and got no more than 24.9% of the vote (in his final year on the ballot).

Thanks for the deal, Michael.  I was happy to add this ball to my collection, especially since Vernon was a former batting champ.