Catfish Hunter childhood swag

Most of my baseball memorabilia from when I was good was left at home when I moved away for college. I had a decent size collection of mainly Mariners players, but I remember I had several signed balls that resided on my shelf until we moved to Korea. Since then my parents have moved back to Germany, yet my baseball goodies remained buried away in some box.  Last year when I flew back home for Christmas I was on a mission to find them. Going through dusty boxes I found some of my old pennants, back from when the Mariners were good, and several from the Tacoma Rainiers. I have since lost track of where they have gone, but I did find the balls, and then forgot them.Last week when my parents came to visit my mom finally remembered to bring them so I'll begin to highlight them.

First up is my Jim "Catfish" Hunter ball which I've had several offers for. I believe I got this ball when I was 9 or 10. I'm not too sure on the story behind it. I just know my dad ran into him and he came home with this.

Catfish pitched in the majors from 1965 to 1979 for the Athletics and Yankees. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1987, and is technically my first HoFer. Throughout his lengthy career he amassed  a 224-166 win loss record, not too shabby. His career highlights are impressive: Cy Young in '74, 5x WS winner, 8x All-Star, and threw a perfect game! Holy shit...