[jcmtiger]

For Gibson's charity in Michigan.

Joe



LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. (AP) — A father-son sports collectors team from Santa Barbara bought the bat Kirk Gibson used for his historic home run in the 1988 World Series for $575,912.40 early Sunday in SCP Auctions' October/November auction, and also took home the four other Gibson artifacts on sale.

Chad and Doug Dreier of the Dreier Group paid $1.19 million for the five items, which included Gibson's home run bat, his game-worn Los Angeles Dodgers jersey ($303,277.20), batting helmet ($153,388.80), NL Most Valuable Player Award ($110,293.20) and World Series trophy ($45,578.40).

"We are thrilled to keep this amazing collection of baseball history in Southern California," Chad Dreier said.

Proceeds from the sale of the World Series trophy and MVP award will benefit the Kirk Gibson Foundation.

Also, a 1934 Babe Ruth professional-model bat used by Ruth to hit career home run No. 702 sold for $137,865.60, a Ty Cobb H&B side-written professional model game-used bat went for $75,330, and a 1953 Mickey Mantle New York Yankees game-worn, autographed road jersey sold for $62,256.

The bid for Gibson's bat is the second-highest amount paid for a game-used bat, behind only Babe Ruth's signed bat used for the first home run at Yankee Stadium that SCP sold in 2004 for $1.265 million.
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"Ty Cobb, Spikes Flying"