This is probably the only new official NASL ball on the planet signed by the Tampa Bay Rowdies. This is from the time when they would pack the old Tamps Bay stadium with fans. I received the ball from a local restaurant (Pepins) owner named Jose Cortez. Anybody familiar with the Tampa Bay area for the past 30 years has herd of or knew of Pepins. It was a popular Spanish restaurant here for may years and was only recently closed down. Anyway, it drew allot of wealthy clientel along with business people and celebrities. You could say it was the place to be in the late 70s and 80s. My mother worked there for 10 years and our house was less then a block away from the restaurant. She would frequently call me and tell me to come up to the restaurant whenever anybody famous was there. My personal favorite was meeting Evil Knievel while he was there. My mom managed to get his signature with out being beat up LOL! Anyways the Rowdies whole team would come in to celebrate victories from time to time. They loved the food and got along well with the owner who was a big soccer fan. He used to take me to the allot of the games in the’Big Sombrero. I was a young kid/aspiring soccer player back then. So the Rowdies to me at that time were what Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls would be to a basketball fan, they were EVERYTHING! As far as the ball goes, it was given to Jose Cortez the owner of Pepins after a important victory. I don’t know exactly when or what it was for, but my mom said the whole team presented it to him as a token of appreciation as a fan and the treatment he showed them at the restaurant. Jose kept the ball in a display cabinet in the front of Pepins along with some other items of interest/trinkets. I would walk up to the restaurant and just stare at the ball through the glass and every now and again he would take it out and let me hold it. He told me to only touch it on the stars so that I wouldn’t mess up any of the signatures. I have done just that until this day some 30 years later. Well on one particular day I was doing my usual staring at the ball in the case when Jose came over and took the ball out. He asked me if I wanted the ball! That’s how I came into possession of this very cool NASL ball! I have had it ever since and enjoyed it along with showing it to anybody who wanted to look at it! The ball has never had air in it because it would distort the signatures. This is how the balls came brand new before they were pumped up. So to say its brand new, is almost an understatement. It has never had air in it! It has yellowed a bit over the years but as you can see from the detailed pics below, its still in amazing shape! All the panels have signatures, some easily recognizable and some not so much. Anyway, enough writing, I will let the pictures do the talking. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! I will not respond to ridiculous offers, so please don’t waste your time, Im not saying that to be an jerk but I’m not giving this one of a kind ball up for nothing. The item “NEW RARE NASL SOCCER BALL AUTOGRAPHED TAMPA BAY ROWDIES ADIDAS FOOTBAL FIFA CUP” is in sale since Sunday, December 06, 2015. This item is in the category “Sporting Goods\Team Sports\Soccer\Balls”. The seller is “thebullsbestever23″ and is located in Saint Petersburg, Florida. This item can be shipped to United States, to Canada, RU, to United Kingdom, DK, RO, SK, BG, CZ, FI, HU, LV, LT, MT, EE, to Australia, GR, PT, CY, SI, to Japan, to China, SE, KR, ID, ZA, TH, to Belgium, to France, to Hong Kong, to Ireland, to Netherlands, PL, to Spain, to Italy, to Germany, to Austria, IL, to Mexico, to New Zealand, SG, to Switzerland, NO, SA, UA, AE, QA, BH, HR, MY, BR, PA, JM.
