Hall of Fame Signed Baseball - Willie McCovey

Another auction has ended over at collectauctions.com and I came away winning 2 lots.  One lot was this signed baseball of Willie McCovey, and the other lot was a lot of 2 balls, one of which I needed for my Hall of Famers (the other ball is someone I have already and will sell for $60 shipped - Wade Boggs).

All of the baseballs came with PSA/DNA certifications and each looks really nice, save for a few marks on the Boggs ball (which some rude kid pointed out to me on Instagram, even though it was pretty visible on the pic I showed).

So, the auction was very successful for me and I was able to push my total up by two.

Ball #104 in my collection is the above Willie McCovey signed William White ONL baseball.  Man, it's sharp!

McCovey (b. 1938) played in the majors from 1959 to 1980 for the Giants, Padres and A's.  He had 521 home runs, 2,211 hits and a .270 lifetime batting average.  He was the 1960 NL Rookie of the Year and the 1969 NL MVP.  In his career, McCovey hit 35+ home runs 6 times, his most being 45 in 1969.  Something I noticed about McCovey, though, was that in 1963, he hit 44 home runs with a .280 batting average and followed that season up with a dismal 1964 campaign where he hit 18 homers with a .220 batting average.  This made me immediately think of the season that Chris Davis is having this year.  Interesting to say the least, especially since McCovey bounced back for six straight 30+ seasons after 1964.  McCovey's 521 home runs are good for 18th all-time where he is locked in a three-way tie with Frank Thomas and Ted Williams.

A 6-time All Star, McCovey played in only one World Series, 1962, and lost to the Yankees.  He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1986 (his first ballot) with 81.4% of the vote.