According to wire reports published on ESPN.com, a bat signed by Shoeless Joe Jackson sold for $137,500 Saturday at a memorabilia auction in Kentucky. At the same auction, a Cleveland Indians jersey worn by Satchel Paige was sold for $110,000. A letter handwritten by Babe Ruth, with six of his signatures at the bottom, and its original envelope went for $41,800. A baseball signed by Ruth and Lou Gehrig went for $31,900.
Question of the Day: Forget about price for a second; what piece of memorabilia from the entirety of baseball history would you most like to own?
- a signed betting slip from Pete Rose?
- the ball from Cy Young's 500th win?
- Joe Carter's bat from The Home Run?
- A game program from the first All-Star Game, signed by every participant?
- Joe Niekro's emery board?
(Please note that answers along the lines of "Jose Mesa's and Kris Benson's wives" are not eligible.)
Part two: What is your current prized baseball memorabilia possession that you'd probably never sell at any price?
My answers:
On the first part, I'd personally like the ball from Bobby Thomson's Shot Heard 'Round the World; on the second part, this is cheesey, but when I was 11, RC Cola put out "player cans" -- essentially baseball cards on their soda cans, and I managed to collect all 60 when a long-sought-after Catfish Hunter can miraculously fell from a soda machine in a Colorado hotel on our family vacation. My lovely bride hasn't yet allowed me to display them all, but I still have a huge box I've hauled to five cities in three states over the last quarter century.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20041107030523999