Lot Essay
Given the frenzy that over 50,000 fans were engulfed within Shea Stadium on August 15, 1965 it was to be expected that The Beatles pending performance would become something of legend. It was to be the first major popular music concert conducted within a stadium setting and remains to date one of the most iconic performances in the history of The Beatles tenure. The band was transported to the stadium via a Boeing Vertol 107-II helicopter into a Wells Fargo armored vehicle to safely enter the stadium. The youthful audience of 55,000 fans greeted the Fab Four with overwhelming screams of enthusiasm rendering meaningful ear functionality almost impossible. Ed Sullivan announced the lead act to the crowd and the rest was history. John Lennon later remarked in 1970, "At Shea Stadium, I saw the top of the mountain." Much of the concert and The Beatles visit to the New York Mets home stadium was captured through various media including a film that would later be aired in US theatres. The band actually dressed in the visitor's clubhouse at Shea Stadium. Memorabilia from the Shea Stadium concert is highly sought after by Beatles and popular culture aficionados alike with signature items of particular scarcity. Given the concert location of baseball pedigree there are know to exist a very minute population of The Beatles signed baseballs from the famed Shea concert to which we are proud to offer one of the finest documented exemplars. Off white W.Giles National League baseball which proudly displays the presence of four blue ink signatures thoughtfully spread across it's sweet spot and adjacent panels. Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison autographs which all remain in very fine condition grade ranging from 7 to 8 out of 10 (Ringo perhaps a 6/7). The ball itself shows only a bit of natural age patination and very minor surface wear to a few spots mentioned for the strictest of accuracy. Period ink inscription in unknown hand, in identical blue ink, is found at top of one panel, "The Beatles Shea Stadium NYC 8/15/65". The significance which The Beatles have within American, and World, popular culture has become difficult to measure and almost certainly without precedent. The presented signature baseball represents an important milestone event within the history of the band in the United States. Given its provenance within the personal collection of Geddy Lee and 1997 letter from Beatles authenticator Frank Caiazzo it is without question one of the finest of a succinctly elite surviving group. Includes 1997 LOA from Frank Caiazzo, 1998 Receipt with relation to a purchase from previous collector, and full LOA from JSA: Ball: EX-MT, Signatures Range NM-NM/MT,