“The Great One” holding an estate sale to benefit the Oaks Christian baseball team

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I haven’t heard anything about locks of Barry Melrose‘s hair or overly-curved Marty McSorley hockey sticks being up for grabs, but Wayne Gretzky‘s family will be selling other memorabilia and personal items at a ‘huge’ estate sale to benefit two local schools.

Gretzky and his wife, Janet Jones, (pictured left) will be selling limited-edition autographed jerseys, home furnishings, off-road vehicles, signed bottles of recently-released Wayne Gretzky Estate Wines (who knew grapes could grow well in Southern Ontario?) and other personal items with a large portion of the proceeds going toward the construction of a new baseball stadium at Oaks Christian.

The upscale garage sale will take place Oct. 27 at 7 a.m. in the Bedrosian Pavilion at Oaks Christian in Westlake Village.

The planned stadium, which is due for completion by spring, will include 300 bleacher seats, a clubhouse, a press box, a concession stand and a storage room. The sale will also benefit programs at Carden Conejo School.

‘Whenever you have people who step up to the plate and contribute, it’s wonderful,’ Oaks Christian Athletic Director Jan Hethcock said. ‘The Gretzky family has been involved with our school for years and have helped us numerous times ... It’s great and it marks a new era for the baseball team.’

Gretzky’s son, Trevor, plays on the Oaks Christian freshman football team and, according to Hethcock, is a talented baseball player as well and is expected to play for the Lions this spring. Wayne was also talented baseball player in his youth.

I already knew ‘The Great One’ was a fan of high school sports because I remember seeing him sitting in the stands at a Hart-Westlake football game back in 2000.

Last month, Wayne and Janet sold their seven-bedroom Lake Sherwood home for $18.5 million. Gretzky is currently coach of the Phoenix Coyotes.

- Austin Knoblauch

-- Image by Frank Gunn/Associated Press