Help with Mickey Mantle New York Yankees Team Signed Baseball

Was wondering if anyone could take a lookat this 1960s or 1950s New York Yankees Team Baseball my neighbor has. I think he has a letter from where his father received the signatures back then. Anyways I took close up of he Mantle signature. Does it look authentic? Thoughts on if I should tell him to get ball authenticated. I did not see Maris on the ball anywhere. I see Ed Ford and Yogi Berra..Thanks for any help.george%20ball%20001.jpg

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Comment by terrier8HOF on March 14, 2012 at 4:04am: the ball is from 1957/1958. hard to tell which year because most of the sigs on here were on both rosters. The Mantle also looks good to me.

Comment by aubrey massey on March 14, 2012 at 5:58am: Does the Mantle look authentic or is it maybe secretary or clubhouse signature....thanks

Comment by stephen kozel on March 14, 2012 at 2:10pm: You have a ball from the 1950's. Mantle signed his name differently in the 50's than the 80's. Many of these balls were signed by clubhouse guys who could forge these autographs fairly well. It is best to send to a third party authentication company like James Spence or PSA. Is the ball just faded or has it been coated? It loses a lot of value if it has a coating. Great ball! I would love to own it!

Comment by terrier8HOF on March 14, 2012 at 4:07pm: the Mantle bears a very close resemblance to his pre-60's signature. He actually changed to his characteristic "M" formation around 1960, because I have yankees team balls from that era that have his real signature on them. I would say the Mantle is not a clubhouse, as it matches very closely, other balls I have seen certified by Spence and PSA. But feel free to send it off for a firm opinion.

Comment by aubrey massey on March 14, 2012 at 4:58pm: The ball is not coated it is just very browning from age...

Comment by Randy on March 14, 2012 at 5:11pm: I have handled a lot of Yankee team signed balls from this era and this one looks to be good. The Mantle which quite often was a clubhouse appears to be authentic. A 3rd party certificate from JSA or PSA/DNA will legitimize it and although they will charge $150 or so to authenticate it, it is probably worth it if you are looking to sell. If you are keeping it, I would not spend the money for the opinion. I agree it is likely 57 or 58 so there would be no Maris on it.

Comment by CEE GEE on March 14, 2012 at 6:25pm: I got to be honest...I am not quite sure...I have seen sooo many of these team balls with the secretarial sweet spot autos with almost always with Berra...I would say on an average every 7 or 8 out of 10 of these team balls have a bad Mantle on them...not saying its bad...but I think PSA or JSA can give you a solid answer...I do understand where Terrior is coming from...I will post some authentic examples tomorrow for you to compare to...those softer rounded loop "M" are definitely a 50's period style that definitely went up to from I would say about 54-59...