Sports memorabilia auctions have never been as exciting as a game, which gives items at auction tremendous value. But Freddie Freeman’s bid for baseball’s grand slam gave the Dodgers Game 1 of the World Series against the New York Yankees in October. victory, which did create its own drama.
The ball sold for $1.56 million at SCP Auctions on Saturday night, but after a heated back-and-forth between bidders, bidding took 2.5 hours longer than the original deadline.
The money will be donated to the family of a 10-year-old boy in the right-field stands at Dodger Stadium where Freeman hit a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning and the Dodgers blocked the ball in the right-field stands amid wild celebrations. superior.
This moment will forever go down as one of the greatest in Dodgers history, rivaling Kirk Gibson’s eerily similar walk-off homer in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. Zachary Ruderman and his parents, Nico and Anne, will cherish this memory forever. The money will change the lives of the Venetian family.
However, with five minutes remaining in the week-long auction, the highest bid was $800,000 and it didn’t look like the bids would reach seven figures. But a bid of $850,000 triggered a 30-minute extension, and the clock again counted down to near zero before a bid of $900,000 could be entered.
And just like that, each extension was expiring before the next bid, all the way to $1.3 million. Buyer’s premiums and fees totaled $1.56 million.
“It’s crazy,” said David Kohler, president of SCP Auctions. “Sometimes that happens. We are thrilled with the outcome and honored to handle one of the most important artifacts in World Series history.
The baseball auction record of $4.392 million was set just two months ago when Shohei Ohtani hit a ball at Loan Depot Park in Miami on September 19, becoming the first person to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season. of MLB players. The previous record was $3.05 million in 1999 when Mark McGwire hit his 70th home run in the 1998 season.
How the sales revenue of Daguqiu is distributed is still controversial. Max Matus filed a lawsuit in Florida’s 11th Judicial Circuit Court against Christian Zacek, who eventually acquired the ball, Florida resident Kelvin Ramirez and Goldin Auction Company, claiming ownership of the ball. of ownership.
There was no such controversy surrounding the Freeman ball, which soared directly to Zachary Rudman, who openly admitted that his favorite player was Freeman and scored in games his family often attended.
“Everyone was standing up, no one was even sitting down,” Zachary told The Times. “I was standing in the bleacher seats so I could see. One or two seconds after the bat hit, I realized it was coming straight toward us.
“Honestly, it was a reaction, an instinct.”
Everyone sitting around him was ecstatic about the Dodgers’ victory, and he remained in the stadium as the team celebrated on the field. No one tried to take the ball away from him.
An ecstatic Zachary Ruderman caught a bat from Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman for a grand slam in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday.
(Nicole Ruderman)
“Hundreds of people surrounded me,” Zachary said. “A lot of people wanted to take pictures with me and the ball. It was overwhelming.
Early the next morning, Zachary went on a business trip with his mother, Anne. Wearing a Dodgers hat and T-shirt, a flight attendant asked him if he had watched the walk-off home run.
“Yeah,” Zachary replied, “I caught it.”
A flight attendant jumped on the plane’s public address system to announce Zachary’s vast wealth to other passengers. He stood up from his seat to thunderous applause.
The most expensive item in MLB auction history was Babe Ruth’s 1932 World Series jersey, which was sold for $24.12 million in August 2024. Ruth wore this Yankees Route 3 jersey when she hit her legendary “ball call” home run at Wrigley.
The identity of Freeman Ball’s new owner has not yet been made public. Zachary Ruderman was once famous and now rich, and his family just wants this ball to be displayed for Dodger fans to enjoy and remember.
“This is a lot more attention than my son gets,” Nico Rudman said. “People recognized him. I mean, almost everywhere we went, people would stop him and want to take a picture with him. He really always loved it. It was a fun experience for him.
“It would be great if this ball could be displayed at Dodger Stadium so fans can see this special piece of history.”
