The Finest Known Joe DiMaggio & Marilyn Monroe Signed Baseball. Though the marriage of Joe and Marilyn was troubled and ver...

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The Finest Known Joe DiMaggio & Marilyn Monroe Signed Baseball. Though the marriage of Joe and Marilyn was troubled and very short, it remains to this day the ultimate celebrity pairing, the consummate sports legend and the definitive Hollywood star. It is well known that despite a lifelong affection for Miss Monroe that saw DiMaggio send flowers to Marilyn's grave until his own passing, Joe absolutely refused to sign any Monroe related material after her death, whether it be photographic images or pages already bearing her autograph. Any signed artifacts blessed by both legendary hands derive only from the brief periods that this couple spent together, literally only a span of months given the short length of their romance and the large percentage of that time that travel separated them. This tight rein that DiMaggio held upon supply after Marilyn's death, paired with the intense desirability of DiMaggio/Monroe material among autograph collectors, propels this remarkable sphere to the status of one of the most desirable and valuable signed baseballs ever offered for private sale.

This pair of autographs was acquired by a New York area news photographer in the early 1960's as the couple was believed to be considering a reconciliation while on vacation together in Florida during baseball's Spring training. By a pure stroke of luck, the photographer happened to have access to a baseball when meeting the famous pair, providing the most desirable of media for this historic duet of signatures. The occasion was memorialized in a 1989 edition of "Newsday," which devoted almost two pages to describe the event. A copy of that news article accompanies the ball.

Speaking to the quality of the baseball, we can do nothing but heap praise upon yet more praise. Our catalog photography should aptly illustrate that the blue ballpoint signatures, placed in tandem upon a lightly toned side panel, remain in the same 10/10 bold ink that was applied over four decades ago. Even the ball itself is the most appealing model, an Official American League (Cronin) model, remembering the league where Joltin' Joe earned his immortality.

Heritage Auction Galleries is very proud and pleased to offer to the collecting public a piece that is as much a "diamond" as the gems Marilyn craved, and the ballfield that Joe dominated. Whether you foresee its future in a velvet lined case or a steel bank vault, we are certain that you will find that investment in a piece that epitomizes the American Dream is a solid one indeed. LOA from PSA/DNA.

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