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Hesburgh Libraries

Rare Books & Special Collections

Index of Balls

The index below includes all the signed baseballs in the Joyce Sports Research Collection. Full catalog entries, with attendant illustrations, have been completed for all linked balls; these entries may be accessed by clicking on the appropriate title. Entries for unlinked balls have yet to be completed. The figures in parenthesis to the right of each listing indicate the number of decipherable signatures on a given ball. The collection is broadly divided into three groups: team-signed balls, group-signed balls, and single-signed balls. In the case of team-signed balls, two basic criteria must be met: signatures must include only members of a specific team from a specific year, and there must be some approximation of completeness. For the purposes of this catalog, no ball originally bearing the signatures of fewer than eighteen team members has been considered team-signed - though the absence of one or more star players has not been viewed as a disqualifying factor. All the team-signed balls in the Joyce Collection would appear to date from the season in question; none are retrospective accumulations of signatures or reunion balls. Group-signed balls include those items with two or more autographs which cannot be designated as team-signed. The premises underlying these particular accumulations of signatures are various. Balls may be contemporary records of some important event, as a World Series, or they may represent some less historically significant gathering (as a reunion). As with the team-signed balls, all would appear to date from a particular occasion - though this is ultimately impossible to verify. The third and largest grouping includes single-signature balls, bearing the autograph of an individual player (or other figure). Those viewers wishing to access the collection by individual signature, rather than by ball, may consult the Index of Signatures.

Team-signed Balls

Group-signed Balls

Single-signed Balls

  • 3-9 - Hank Aaron
  • 3-10 - Yogi Berra
  • 3-11 - Steve Carleton
  • 3-12 - Happy Chandler
  • 3-13 - Rick Dempsey
  • 3-14 - Joe Dimaggio
  • 3-15 - Joe Dimaggio
  • 4-1 - Tom Eakin
  • 4-2 - Bob Feller
  • 4-3 - Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C.
  • 4-4 - Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C.
  • 4-5 - Sandy Koufax
  • 4-6 - Don Larsen
  • 4-7 - Mickey Mantle
  • 4-8 - Roger Maris
  • 4-9 - Willie Mays
  • 4-10 - Willie Mays
  • 4-11 - Bill Mazeroski
  • 4-12 - Stan Musial
  • 4-13 - Harry Neily
  • 4-14 - Eddie Onslow
  • 4-15 - Satchel Paige
  • 5-1 - Pete Rose
  • 5-2 - Babe Ruth
  • 5-3 - Herb Score
  • 5-4 - George Sisler, Jr.
  • 5-5 - Bill Terry
  • 5-6 - Joe Torre
  • 5-7 - Hal Trosky
  • 5-8 - Bill Wambsganss
  • 5-9 - Carl Yastrzemski
  • 5-10 - Cy Young