Leesburg man sells Mickey Mantle autograph

A Leesburg man just sold what could be hall of famer Mickey Mantle's first autograph as a professional baseball player.

Jack Brownlee went with his father to a minor league Independence Yankees game when he was six years old. He was the only kid to ask the then 17-year-old Mantle for his autograph.

"I opened the book here and I said, 'Mickey, could you sign my autograph?', said Brownlee. "And he looked up, grinned from ear-to-ear. And said 'sure kid.'

"He rushed over, spun me around, bent me over and took the lead pencil my dad had given me. And he wrote Mick Mantle right here. And I've cherished it for 62 years."

Brownlee sold the baseball program with Mantle's autograph to the Treasure Hunter's Road Show that's in Albany at the Best Western through Saturday.

He did not say exactly how much money he got for it. But, he did fess up that it's in the thousands of dollars.