Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman ended Sport 1 of the 2024 World Collection with the primary ever walk-off grand slam in World Collection historical past. On Saturday evening, the ball he hit offered for $1.56 million at public sale, making it the third most costly game-used baseball of all time.
The Dodgers went on to win the World Collection over the New York Yankees in 5 video games, with Freeman incomes MVP honors after hitting house runs in every of the primary 4 video games of the sequence and tying the World Collection document with a complete of 12 RBI.
After Freeman hit his historic grand slam into the stands at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 25, the ball was secured by the Ruderman household, because of the fast response of 10-year-old Zachary Ruderman, who was shocked with tickets to the sport by his dad and mom after they instructed him he was leaving faculty early that day to get his braces eliminated.
“When the ball rolled from the seat in entrance of Zachary to the bottom at his ft, he batted it to his dad, Nico, who jumped on it forward of a number of different followers scrambling after it,” SCP Auctions, which ran the sale, stated in an preliminary press launch.
Though the identification of the customer has not been revealed, the Ruderman household stated they hope “the baseball might be displayed in Dodger Stadium so all Dodgers and baseball followers can view a really particular piece of historical past for the town of Los Angeles.”
The Freeman grand slam ball is now the third most costly game-used baseball of all time. Shohei Ohtani’s fiftieth house run ball from the 2024 season set a brand new document $4.392 million in October. Mark McGwire’s seventieth house run ball from the 1998 season is second at $3.005 million. Aaron Decide’s 62nd house run ball from 2022 is now the fourth most costly at $1.5 million.
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(High picture: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Instances through Getty Photos)