Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam ball from Recreation 1 of the 2024 World Collection bought for $1.56 million — together with purchaser’s premium — at SCP Auctions late Saturday night time.
It is the third-most costly baseball ever bought, behind Shohei Ohtani’s $4.392 million 50/50 house run ball and Mark McGwire’s seventieth house run ball, which bought for roughly $3 million in 1999.
Freeman’s homer surpassed Aaron Choose’s 62nd house run ball, which bought for $1.5 million in 2022.
The Dodgers received the collection in 5 video games, with Freeman named MVP as he received his second World Collection title in 4 seasons.
“We’re so honored to have dealt with one of the necessary artifacts in World Collection historical past, relationship again to 1903,” SCP Auctions president David Kohler stated in a press release.
Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts stated Freeman’s slam “may be the best baseball second” he is ever witnessed.
The fan who caught the ball was of some observe: Zachary Ruderman, 10, was instructed he was leaving college early to get his braces off, however his dad and mom shocked him by taking him to Recreation 1 as an alternative. When Freeman’s historic blast — the second walk-off grand slam in MLB postseason historical past — rattled round beneath the seat in entrance of Zachary, he batted it to his father, who jumped on it.
The Ruderman household, in a press release from SCP Auctions, stated they hoped the baseball would sooner or later be displayed in Dodger Stadium.
In the identical public sale, the one Lou Gehrig World Collection jersey to ever floor, worn in a number of video games within the 1937 season, together with the World Collection, went unsold. It was anticipated to fetch upward of $4 million, however bidding did not meet the set reserve worth, which a spokesperson from SCP Auctions instructed ESPN they might not disclose.
