A typical boy’s fantasy came true for Ronald Hoier one summer afternoon in 1946 when his mother took him to a baseball game at Yankee Stadium courtesy of her friend “Marse Joe” McCarthy, the legendary New York Yankees manager.

It got even better for the wide-eyed youngster from Buffalo as they took their seats one row behind the home team’s dugout. McCarthy stepped out and waved.

“I was 13. The first thing out of my mouth was, ‘Can I have a baseball?’ ” Hoier recalled.

He got hiswish— and then some. McCarthy motioned him onto the field, handed him a shiny new ball, pointed toward the dressing room and said. “Now you go through there and have everybody sign this.” The kid did as he was was told.

Tonight, 64 years later, that prized baseball, with the autographs of Hall of Fame players Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto, among others, will go on the block in Lodge Auction House, 212 Cazenovia St.

It is likely to attract spirited bidding from sports memorabilia collectors far and wide.

Even at 13, Hoier knew right away that he was clutching a priceless bit of baseball history. No sooner had he re- joined his mother in the stands than a man a few rows back shouted, “I’ll give you $200 for that ball.”

Naturally, the value has soared like one of Joltin’ Joe’s home runs.

Not long ago, Hoier was offered $2,500 for the artifact, which he has kept inside a clear plastic cover for more than six decades. “It’ll go for more than that, I would think,” the West Seneca retiree said.

Though the ball has yellowed slightly, it otherwise is in pristine condition, the signatures clearly visible. Two, in particular, may turn out to increase the value greatly — Di- Maggio’s, which fills a space deliberately left open by his teammates where the red seams are closest to each other, and Berra’s, which the catcher signed using his first name, Larry.

Hoier believes that Berra, who was a Yankees rookie in 1946, had not begun using the nickname that became famous.

“This might be the only ball still around that he signed ‘Larry Berra,’ ” he said.

Hoier’s mother, Loretta Heide, found work in New Jersey and remarried after his father, Fred, died when Ronald was 6. He was visiting her when McCarthy invited them to the game in the Bronx.

She never told her son how she came to know McCarthy, who resigned as Yankees manager 35 games into the 1946 season. His Hall of Fame career included 16 years with the Yankees that produced 1,460 victories, eight American League pennants and seven World Series championships. In all, he managed 24 years with the Yankees, Cubs and Red Sox, totaling 2,125 victories and a .615 winning percentage.

They might have met in Western New York, where the Philadelphia native played baseball for Niagara University in 1906 and was a member of the original Buffalo Bisons in 1914 and 1915. After returning to baseball as manager of the Red Sox from 1948 to 1950, Mc- Carthy retired for good to his farm on South Ellicott Creek Road in Amherst. He died at age 90 in 1978 and is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in the Town of Tonawanda.

It’s probably too late to ask how the friendship began, Hoier said. “My mother’s 97. I don’t know if she’d remember.”

For auction information, call 826-0168 or go to the Web site

www.thelodgeauction.com

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