(LOT 47)
1961 Topps #406 Mantle Blasts 565-FT. Home Run (PSA Gem Mint 10)
No one would argue that the iconic Mickey mantle could hit a baseball harder and further than anyone who ever stepped into a batter's box. He is documented with hitting at least ten 500+ foot round-trippers in his illustrious career, twice hitting the right-field façade at Yankee Stadium as a left-handed batter. Indeed, "The Mick's" remarkable Goliath-like power led to some unfathomable blasts that could test the confines of any ballpark.

Yet, for all of Mantle's amazing homers, his mightiest blast took place on April 17, 1953 when batting right-handed at Washington's Griffith Stadium in the fifth inning, he absolutely crushed a Chick Stobbs belt-high fastball over the 391-foot fence in left-center field. The ball cleared 32 rows of bleacher seats and hit an advertising sign that stood 460-feet from home plate. Bouncing off the sign, the ball actually cleared 5th Street behind the left field wall until it finally landed in the backyard of 434 Oakdale Street, some 565-feet from home plate! After the home run, Yankees press secretary Red Patterson immediately left the stadium to measure the distance and retrieve the baseball. A 10-year old boy just happened to get to the baseball first, requesting 75 cents from Patterson for the ball.

After measuring the 565-foot distance, Patterson actually gave the boy a full dollar, eventually sending him an addition five dollars and two autographed Mickey Mantle baseballs for handing over the historic ball that ultimately found its way to Cooperstown, N.Y. (along w/Mantle's bat). Still the longest documented home run in baseball history, it took 8 years for a baseball card company to celebrate this monumental homer on one of their cardboard subjects when in 1961, the Topps Chewing Gum Company finally honored this historic dinger via subject#406. Titled "MANTLE BLAST 565 FT. HOME RUN", the image reveals Mantle's miraculous blast with an extended black arrow tracking the complete path of his record-braking wallop from home plate to its final destination outside the ballpark.

As a perfect testament for this unfathomable feat, presented here is that #406 subject with a "PSA 10" grade that stands as one of a mere four "Gem Mint 10" examples! Incredible as it may seem, of the nearly 3,000 PSA encapsulated specimens, only a microscopic-like 0.1% have been fortunate enough to achieve the pinnacle '10" assessment. Simply stated, every aspect of this premier offering is consistent with a flawless card including its bright/sparkling image, near-perfect centering, sharp resolution, bright white borders, immaculate surfaces and pinpoint corners.

With the pricing points for Mantle's finest graded cards achieving record prices seemingly every day, we cannot even begin to estimate what this impeccable "pack-fresh" masterpiece will tally. A perfect testament to that incomparable feat, this premier offering stands tall with only three other examples as the finest of its kind, synonymous with Mantle's record breaking 565-foot blast that may forever reside as baseball's ultimate display of unparalleled power!

MIN BID $1,500
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