The baseball from Freddie Freeman‘s walk-off World Series grand slam sold for $1.56 million at auction on Saturday night.
The $1.6 million bid made the ball the third-most expensive game-used baseball ever, according to SCP Auctions. Shohei Ohtani‘s 50th home run ball from this past season, when Ohtani became MLB’s first 50-50 player, auctioned for $4.4 million. Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball from 1998 went for $3.005 million.
Freeman lifted the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6–3 win over the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series with his 10th-inning home run off Nestor Cortes. The dramatic blow fueled an eventual five-game series victory for the Dodgers.
Making Freeman’s grand slam even more compelling was the veteran first baseman struggling with an ankle injury that made such a feat seem unlikely. Instead, the clutch home run on baseball’s biggest stage drew quick comparisons to Kirk Gibson’s walk-off home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
The grand slam ball was initially grabbed by 10-year-old Zachary Ruderman. As the ball rolled to him, he batted it to his father Nico, who secured it amid a ferocious scramble by fans in Dodger Stadium’s right-field pavilion.
“As soon as everyone knew I had the ball, I stood up and handed it to [Zac],” Nico Ruderman said in a statement released by SCP Auctions. “I picked him up and tears were streaming down his face.”
The buyer of the grand slam ball has not been revealed.
Freeman’s home run ball is the second from the 2024 World Series that sold at auction this past week. On Thursday, the ball dropped by the Yankees’ Aaron Judge in Game 5, spurring a Dodgers comeback from a 5–0 deficit, sold for $43,510.
Still available for fans wanting a keepsake from the 2024 World Series is game-used dirt.
