This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 12/6/2006.
As famed sportswriter Dan Daniel once said, "Bill Dickey isn't just a catcher, he's a ball club." The premier catcher of the late 1930s and early 1940s, the lefthanded-hitting Dickey was the soul of the Yankee dynasty bridging the Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio eras as a player, and the Mickey Mantle era as a coach. He was a keen handler of pitchers, especially the erratic Lefty Gomez, as quiet as his roommate, Gehrig, consistent, setting a major league record for catching 100 or more games in 13 straight seasons, and never played another game at another position. He was the first Yankee to find out about Gehrig's illness and was the only active player to play himself in the Gary Cooper movie "Pride of the Yankees." Bill Dickey was much more than a baseball player, he was a true American hero. Many people know how baseball greats such as Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio enlisted and served our country during World War II, but few know how Bill Dickey put his hall of fame catching career on hold to enlist in the Navy at the age of 36. Dickey was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1954, and his number 8 was retired by the New York Yankees in 1972. The exterior of the cap is blue with the "NY" Yankee insignia stitched front and center in white. The wool cap's inside portion shows good game use. There is a light brown faded leather lining that surrounds the cap, with Bill Dickey's name written in black pen along the right edge. There is a slight tear in the back of the hat directly in the center. The tear measures at about half an inch. The white inside lining has faded to a light brown color. The cap is accompanied with two seperate letters from the Dickey family.