In a key moment in the 2024 World Series, a ball fired from Freddie Freeman’s bat into the right field stands at Dodger Stadium hit the auction block Wednesday.
Bids for the walk-off grand slam ball that gave the Dodgers a 6-3 victory in Game 1, propelling the team to their eighth World Series championship and Freeman as series MVP, will be accepted through Dec. 14 at SCP Auctions. David Kohler said he believes Ball is “easily worth seven figures.”
Bidding will begin Wednesday at 10 a.m. Pacific Time.
Suffering from an ankle injury, Freeman hit Nestor Cortez’s first pitch from 413 feet to complete the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history. The baseball ended up in the hands of 10-year-old Zachary Ruderman, whose family lives in Venice.
Zachary told NBCLA that the ball rolled from the seat in front of him to his feet.
“When he hit the ball, we knew it was going out of the park, but we didn’t expect to be able to catch it,” Zachary said. “The ball bounced off the seats in front of us and rolled a little bit on the ground. Then I knew it.”
Zachary’s family had told him he was leaving school early on that magical day to have his braces removed. Instead, he ended up being part of what Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called “the greatest baseball moment I’ve ever witnessed.”
Zachary was overjoyed and called it “the best day of my life.” The family said they hope the ball will be on display for all fans to see.
“Our family would like baseball to be on display at Dodger Stadium so that all Dodgers and baseball fans can appreciate this special piece of history in the city of Los Angeles,” the Ruderman family said in a statement Wednesday. said.
This baseball is the second Dodgers-related ball to be auctioned this season. The ball hit by Shohei Ohtani, who became the first player in Major League history to hit 50 home runs and steal at least 50 bases in a season, was sold to a Taiwanese investment company for nearly $4.4 million and is on display in the country.
A sports ball sales record was set.
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