Homerun Balls

[yanks12025]

Posted this over on GUU, but thought you guys would like to see it. Noticed in the preview for the heritage April auction they have Jim Leyritz final homerun ball of 1900's. But at the same time legendary auctions is selling another one also.

http://www.legendaryauctions.com/LotDetail.aspx?lotid=128199&searchby=3&searchvalue=leyritz&page=0&sortby=0&displayby=2&lotsperpage=50&category=1&seo=Jim-Leyritz-1999-World-Series-Home-Run-Ball---Last-Home-Run-of-the-20th-Century!

http://sports.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7051&lotIdNo=37037

[william_9]

Whichever ball he hit (if either) it still isn't the last home run of the 20th century.

[Shoeless Moe]

Posted this over on GUU, but thought you guys would like to see it. Noticed in the preview for the heritage April auction they have Jim Leyritz final homerun ball of 1900's. But at the same time legendary auctions is selling another one also.

http://www.legendaryauctions.com/LotDetail.aspx?lotid=128199&searchby=3&searchvalue=leyritz&page=0&sortby=0&displayby=2&lotsperpage=50&category=1&seo=Jim-Leyritz-1999-World-Series-Home-Run-Ball---Last-Home-Run-of-the-20th-Century!

http://sports.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7051&lotIdNo=37037

That is a great catch (literally). Someone has some 'splaining to do Since Jonathan from Heritage comments and so does Doug from Legendary it'll be interesting to hear their comments.

Unbelievable!

[mcgwirecom]

Luuuuuucy! You got some splainin to do!

[packs]

Seems like one of them is featuring a foul ball hit during the game and the other is selling the real thing. Or, both are selling foul balls. That's assuming MLB marked these balls with some type of marker like Barry and McGwire's. With such a highly publicized event it should be very easy to trace the baseball's ownership.

[doug.goodman]

Whichever ball he hit (if either) it still isn't the last home run of the 20th century.

The last HR of the 20th century was hit by Derek "$500 to sign your index card" Jeter on Oct 26, 2000 in Shea Stadium.

Doug

[travrosty]

the heritage listing only claims the ball to be the last hr hit of the 1900's, which is correct.

last hr of the 20th century, different story.

[thecatspajamas]

Man, I thought we were past these kinds of arguments after the world didn't end at midnight in either 1999 OR 2000...

As for the provenance of the homerun balls, Legendary sent out an e-mail this morning promoting their auction with the following blurb which, sort of maybe (with some extrapolation), explains the confusion:

"Although a batch of Jim Leyritz memorabilia hit the market a few years ago via his ex-wife, Jim assured us that the game-used bats and balls presented here were not displayed in hishome—and thus never accessed by his ex-wife or ever made available to the public. Furthermore, he insisted we utilize third-party authenticators in order to inextricably link each milestone item to its respective event … and utilize them we did.

Throughout the process, Legendary sought to do everything in our power (and wallet) to ensure the most definitive third-party certification. For example, PSA Authenticator John Taube exhaustively researched the 1996 World Series Game 4 Home Run bat through frame-by-frame analysis of game footage, resulting in a quartet of irrefutable photo matches.

As previously stated, that extremely significant bat—as well asevery other bat, ball and jersey in the Jim Leyritz Collection—was appropriately marked by Leyritz right after the event, and then housed under lock and key…until now."

[packs]

Has Heritage responded to this?

[dallen]

Items sold by Leyritz's wife came with a LOA from her not from Jim. Most of these items were absolutely authentic.

There were two items we have knowledge were sold by her that we are selling now: (1) the 1996 walk off HR bat which John Taube has independently viewed video evidence to prove our bat is authentic and the other one is a fraud (take time to review the amazing work that was done to identify spexific ball transfer marks from the two foul balls and the home run which leaves NO DOUBT) and (2) this ball.

More information to come as we work through this.

I am happy to answer any specific questions interested bidders may have. I can be reached at dallen@legendaryauctions.com

[packs]

Items sold by Leyritz's wife came with a LOA from her not from Jim. Most of these items were absolutely authentic.

There were two items we have knowledge were sold by her that we are selling now: (1) the 1996 walk off HR bat which John Taube has independently viewed video evidence to prove our bat is authentic and the other one is a fraud (take time to review the amazing work that was done to identify spexific ball transfer marks from the two foul balls and the home run which leaves NO DOUBT) and (2) this ball.

More information to come as we work through this.

I am happy to answer any specific questions interested bidders may have. I can be reached at dallen@legendaryauctions.com


But in the e-mail posted your company claims that these items were not sold by his wife. Now you're saying they were but are authentic.

[dallen]

...my post meant that of the items we are selling two other objects purported to represent the same event were previously sold by his wife. For example she sold what she purported to be his 1996 walk off home run bat which is why we brought Taube in to confirm the one he was selling was in fact the bat.

He was able to quickly discount the one sold by his wife based on the lack of red transfer marks made from the special World Series balls.

Then through frame by frame view of game film he was able to match up the silver "13" on the knob as well as specific identification of the three red transfer marks made by the two fouls and the home run.

In my opinion this one of the most detailed authentications ever performed to link a game used ba to a specific event.

Hope that clarifies.

[travrosty]

i thought this was about the ball. is footage of the ball even possible? how can they be sure the ball is the same one?

[dallen]

No it is not possible.

When Jim presented us with the properly marked bats and balls offered, which were being safeguarded by his attorney, we became aware that one bat and one ball were purported to be sold by his wife years ago. Before we moved forward on anything we brought in John Taube to nail down the bat as described. In our opinion this added credibility to his story that these game used artifacts were in fact marked and safeguarded by Jim years ago.

Normally a players word and LOA is enough but in this case we believed and Jim agreed it important to bring out a third party to verify is story.

We stand behind these items 100%.

Again please email me if you have questions.

Enjoy the auctions.
Doug

[BrandonG]

...my post meant that of the items we are selling two other objects purported to represent the same event were previously sold by his wife. For example she sold what she purported to be his 1996 walk off home run bat which is why we brought Taube in to confirm the one he was selling was in fact the bat.

He was able to quickly discount the one sold by his wife based on the lack of red transfer marks made from the special World Series balls.

Then through frame by frame view of game film he was able to match up the silver "13" on the knob as well as specific identification of the three red transfer marks made by the two fouls and the home run.

In my opinion this one of the most detailed authentications ever performed to link a game used ba to a specific event.

Hope that clarifies.

The World Series baseballs in 1999 would have been blue stamping, not red so there would be no red markings on the bat.

[dallen]

Read my post again....I was referencing his 96 walk off home run bat. 96 balls have red stampings.

[BrandonG]

Read my post again....I was referencing his 96 walk off home run bat. 96 balls have red stampings.

My mistake, you are correct. This thread is just going all over the place instead of concentrating on what the original post was about, which was the last HR of the 20th century.

[sayhey24]

My mistake, you are correct. This thread is just going all over the place instead of concentrating on what the original post was about, which was the last HR of the 20th century.

The one thing we know definitely is that neither ball is from the last home run of the 20th century. The question being debated is which ball is the last home run of 1999.

Greg

[yanks12025]

Heritage wrote back to me.

We have the real one. You would have to ask this question to the other auction

[earlywynnfan]

Heritage wrote back to me.

We have the real one. You would have to ask this question to the other auction

Is it me, or does Heritage have an attitude that they are so big and important that they are unworthy of being judged or questioned by us little people?

Ken
earlywynnfan5@hotmail.com

[dallen]

We believe we have the real one too but take this very seriously.

After much consideration Legendary Auctions has decided to withdraw the ball from our current auction. I had a long talk with Jim Leyritz regarding this ball who reaffirmed that the game balls and game bats where not in the house when his wife "selected" items to sell. We were able to verify with certainty that this was the case with the 96 Home Run bat but were unable to do this with the ball; and although we were comfortable with its authenticity agreed with Jim that we did not want any suggested negativity related to one item to take away from the sale of historic items from his collection.

In the end we believe withdrawing this item is the most responsible course of action given the circumstances.

Thanks for your feedback that helped us reach this conclusion.

Sincerely,
Doug Allen

[travrosty]

Is it me, or does Heritage have an attitude that they are so big and important that they are unworthy of being judged or questioned by us little people?

Ken
earlywynnfan5@hotmail.com



It is not you,

its par for their course and they will ban you from their auction and suspend your account. I know 3 people who this has happened to just for merely questioning their knowledge on a few items.

[yanks12025]

Thought I'd bump this. I emailed Seth and asked about it. Here is what he wrote:


they didn't have the real leyritz ball. he even wrote on the date january 3, 2012. in other words, he was just trying to make you think it was'the real thing'. not. his wife auctioned everything back in 2006. i got 2 things--his 'key to the city' presented by mayor giuliani in 1996, and this, the LAst HR of the 20th century ball. legendary auctions pulled the supposed ball from their auction. they knew it wasn't the right one as well. consider the source: leyritz.

the real deal has been in my collection since 2006, straight from kari leyritz.