Million Dollar Ball Could Only Happen in America

The ball looks rather ordinary, really. There’s a smudge here, probably where it was struck by Mark McGwire’s bat, and a nick there, possibly from its collision with the metal bleachers at Busch Stadium before it landed at Philip Ozersky’s feet.

What makes this particular ball extraordinary is the $2.7 million an anonymous bidder paid for it at Guernsey’s baseball auction. Add the $305,000 buyer’s commission and the total price is over $3 million.

And that’s without McGwire’s autograph.

Ozersky, a bright, 26-year-old research scientist working on a human gene project at Washington University in St. Louis, recognized the absurdity of it all.

“It’s pretty inconceivable,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “I went to a Cardinals game to have some fun with my friends and this happened.”

Did the price exceed his expectations?

“Oh, yeah,” Ozersky exclaimed. “The sky’s the limit, and I found out what the sky was.”

What is it Don King always says? Only in America.

Later in the auction last Tuesday, Guernsey’s offered the 755th home run ball hit by Hank Aaron, significant because it was the last one struck by baseball’s home run king. It was a struggle to get the bidding to $800,000 and when auctioneer JoAnne Carter couldn’t attract any more than that, the item was withdrawn because it had not reached its unannounced minimum price.

Now understand, McGwire almost certainly will hit more home runs and Aaron will not. Yet Carter had no trouble pushing the price of No. 70 into the stratosphere, the cost jumping in $100,000 increments, while No. 755 drew a ho-hum from the high rollers who came with their checkbooks.

More puzzling is that two months ago the first home run ball Babe Ruth hit in Yankee Stadium sold for a mere $126,500, chump change by comparison.

And Ruth even signed it.

“What happened with the McGwire ball was incredible,” said Joshua Evans, who runs Leland’s Auction House and sold the Ruth ball. “It makes sense because this is an amazing piece. It’s probably the most significant home run ever hit and never has it been so timely for it to be sold.”

Right now, McGwire is baseball’s marquee name and Ruth is out of the game’s distant past. It is the same, Evans said, as the difference between the price of Michael Jordan memorabilia and Wilt Chamberlain’s.

“This ball is the only piece that people will pay to see,” Evans said. “Look at the response it got. The ball went for what it should have gone for.”

The whole Guernsey’s affair had a surrealistic feel about it. The Madison Square Garden gallery cheered loudly, like a ballpark crowd rooting for a rally, as the price soared for the McGwire ball.

After the price hit $1.6 million, just two bidders remained: the faceless voice on the telephone and Irwin Sternberg, a New York businessman. There was a gasp from the crowd when the $2 million plateau was reached.

Sternberg blinked at $2.6 million and later said he was sorry that he had not stayed in the chase. He came away with a consolation prize, a ball signed by Ruth and Roger Maris, previous holders of the home run record, that he purchased for $60,000.

There was some booing when Arlan Ettinger, president of the auction house, withdrew one of the other prize lots--Mickey Mantle’s 500th home run--because of a question of authenticity. It was as if the crowd wasn’t concerned with that little detail. They were ready to bid anyway.

Other McGwire balls went for less glitzy prices. No. 63, No. 67 and No. 68 sold for $50,000 each. And No. 16--a ball that sailed 545 feet for his longest homer of the season--went for a mere $20,000.

Go figure.

Then there was the matter of Sammy Sosa, McGwire’s partner in the season-long home run chase. No. 66, his last of the season, fetched $150,000, but some of his other homers were received less enthusiastically. No. 64 went for $24,000 and No. 61 went for a bargain basement $15,000.

Hey, at that price, Ernie Banks might have said let’s buy two.