Last night, as I was working my way through the Sunday New York Times (there really should be a federal subsidy for doing that, don’t you think?), I came across this full-page ad in the A section.

Seriously – a mint-condition 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card could go for $10 million?

Makes a person think.

Specifically about this item I posted six years ago under the headline, The Night Mickey Mantle Called Me Johnny.

As I might have mentioned once or twice, I’ve been a Made Yankee Fan in Boston for over four decades.

But beyond that, I’ve been a Made Mickey Mantle Fan for almost 60 years. So the following episode was, well, major.

It was – I dunno – 1961, 1962 when my old man came home one night with a little something special.

He’d been at the Copacabana with some business associates and he ran into Mantle and Whitey Ford, who were out on one of their routine toots.

(I’ve always loved the way Mantle explained how he could hit with a hangover: “I see three baseballs,” he said. “But I only swing at the middle one.”)

Anyway, what the old man brought home that night was this (which I just recently came across).

In my youth, I had my differences – to put it mildly – with the old man (and Jackie’s Agnes was pissed he had gone to the Copa without her), but that night, he was almost as big as The Mick.

Now, I’m not saying I’d entertain any offers for that autograph. But I can’t deny I’m curious as to what those might be.

‘Nuf ced.