1990 Sid Fernandez Mets Final Home Game Original Baseball Artwork by LeRoy Neiman....

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1990 Sid Fernandez Mets Final Home Game Original Baseball Artwork by LeRoy Neiman.

Inscription: Mets final home game, Fernandez Sept. 30, 1990, Sid F ready to throw home run ball to Dawson.
Autographed by Fernandez (9/10).
Baseball: ONL (White).
Documents: Neiman & McCabe signed letter. Pre-certified by PSA/DNA.

The LeRoy Neiman Collection of Original Baseball Art.

A letter from our consignor...

Prior to my retirement I was the officer in charge of marketing and Communications at Manufacturers Hanover (which became Chemical, Chase and, finally, JP Morgan Bank). One of our marketing strategies was to use sports as a vehicle to promote the bank's brand. So we sponsored almost all the professional and college sports in the New York area. We were major sponsors of the Mets, Yankees, Giants, Jets, Knicks, and so on. The New York Mets had a beer sponsor that awarded the Mets Player of the Year with an original Neiman drawing of himself. When the beer sponsor dropped out in the mid-1970's, the bank stepped in. This was the beginning of a forty-year friendship with LeRoy. This award was made during spring training, and it was then (in 1978) that I asked LeRoy to draw the first ball. I think it was Yogi Berra, but he did not say so on the ball.

As the years went by LeRoy did other work for the bank such as drawings of players that were then made into posters as team promos for give-away days at the stadium. Many of the images on the posters were also drawn on the baseballs. LeRoy drew many of these at the game, some in the car as we drove to the game, and others at his studio. He really liked the challenge of capturing the image on the baseball and found creative ways to make it work. We went to most Mets Opening Days, since this is where LeRoy could be on the field doing his work. When he had the time he drew his Femlin and self-portraits on balls for me also. He was very good to the charities in which I was involved, doing dinner program covers and showing up at events giving countless autographs. He was a great friend not only to me but to the whole world of sport.

Charles McCabe

We'd like to add that this one-of-a-kind collection represents the entirety of the Neiman baseballs owned by Mr. McCabe, and only a tiny handful of other Neiman artwork baseballs are known to exist. Most of the baseballs are accompanied with signed and notarized letters of provenance from Neiman, and many include various ticket stubs, photographic snapshots and other ephemera from the events at which they were created. The result is a fascinating and comprehensive "behind the scenes" view of the master at work.