Two pieces of World Series history have found their way to SCP Auctions and are currently open for bids.
The ball Miguel Rojas hit into the seats for the game-tying home run in the ninth inning of World Series Game 7 and the ball Will Smith hit for the game-winning home run in the 11th inning are being auctioned off by SCP Auctions. In addition, the second of Shohei Ohtani’s three home run balls in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series is also part of SCP’s fall auction.
Bidding closes on Saturday.
Rojas’ homer was the first in World Series history to tie a Game 7 in the ninth inning or later. Smith’s 11th-inning home run was the first extra-inning home run in a winner-take-all World Series game.
A father and son – John and Matthew Bains – claimed to have caught both balls while sitting in the front row in the left field corner at Rogers Centre. The balls were authenticated by SCP Auctions chief operations officer Mike Keys.
The elder Bains admitted to ESPN.com that he was carrying extra baseballs that had been thrown to him and his son by pitchers in the Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen. He threw one of those back onto the field after catching Rojas’ home run, keeping the actual home run ball.
The balls were not authenticated by MLB. According to Keys, Laguna Niguel-based SCP Auctions collects sworn affidavits and conducts polygraph tests as part of its authentication process before making balls available for bidding at auction.
Last December, SCP Auctions brokered the sale of the ball that Freddie Freeman hit for a walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. That ball sold for $1.56 million, the third-highest price ever received for a baseball.
The ball thrown by Walker Buehler to Smith for the final pitch of the 2024 World Series was auctioned off for $414,000. Buehler and Smith donated the proceeds to L.A. fire relief charities.
The current bidding for Ohtani’s NLCS home run ball had reached $200,000 on the SCP Auctions website.
