1951 Kansas City Blues Team Signed Baseball Mickey Mantle Minor League JSA COA

1951 Kansas City Blues Team Signed Baseball with Vintage Mickey Mantle Autograph. As an eighteen-year-old, Mickey Mantle hit .383 for the Joplin Minors in the Western Association in 1950. The following season, 1951, he debuted as a New York Yankee at age nineteen and was issued number "6," believing that he was destined to follow in the footsteps of numbers "3," "4," and "5." Despite starting the season in a strong fashion, Mick slumped at mid-season forcing Casey Stengel to return him to the minors for additional seasoning. Despite the Old Professor's encouraging words of "In a couple of weeks you'll start hitting and we'll bring you right back again, I promise," Mantle was crushed. After being promoted as the next great Yankee, he once again found himself back in the minor leagues, this time playing Triple-A ball for the Kansas City Blues.

With his confidence dashed, and feeling that he had squandered his only big league opportunity and wasn't cut out to be a ballplayer, Mantle called his dad to tell him that he was packing it in and heading home. But thanks to a surprise visit and no-nonsense talk from his father, Mantle decided to give it a final all-out, last ditch effort. His tenacity paid off, and he hit .361 with eleven homers and fifty RBI over forty games for the Blues.

Mantle returned to the Yankees on August 24, 1951 and hit .284 with six dingers and twenty RBI for the final twenty-seven games of the season, remaining with the big boys for the next eighteen seasons.

The lot presented here features an artifacts from Mantle's important stint in Kansas City which was the turning point of and springboard for his iconic Hall of Fame career.

 1951 Kansas City Blues team signed baseball with twenty-one autographs, including Mickey Mantle, manager George Selkirk (sweet spot), Jackie Jensen (1958 A.L. MVP), and Andy Carey. Comes with full letter JSA certificate COA. 

Also included is  two Kansas City Baseball Club original 1951 tickets.

D#66