Interest in the 1953 U.S. Major League All Stars Tour of Japan was so high that a drawing was held on 10/10/53 in which holders of lottery tickets, such as this one, with winning numbers, would receive an outfield ticket to the game of 10/31/53 between the All Stars and Hankyu Braves to be played at Nishinomiya Stadium. A packed house saw the All Stars defeat the Braves by a score of 7-3, behind the pitching of Curt Simmons and two homers by Enos Slaughter. While Yogi Berra, who is pictured on this ticket, did not do anything spectacular in this particular game, he did bat .386 over the 12 game series and hit six homers.

While we have seen and auctioned numerous actual game tickets from this series with Berra's image printed on the ticket, this is the first time we have ever been fortunate to offer a lottery ticket such as this one. Most likely, the scarcity of this item is a result of winning tickets being exchanged for game tickets at the time, while losing tickets were discarded. This is a great item for both Yankees collectors and Tour of Japan collectors.

Size: 2 7/16" x 5 5/8"

Condition: Good to Vg