History of Maris' 61st home run ball?

[Archive]

Posted By: CarltonHendricks

Does anyone know the history of Roger Maris' 61st home run ball? As I understand, it was presented back to Maris, Maris died in the early part of 1985, and now the ball is in the HOF. Is it on loan to the Hall from someone? Was it ever auctioned thru one of the big auction houses? If so how much did it sell for? Who actually owns it today?

[Archive]

Posted By: davidcycleback

I never saw or heard of it being auctioned.

[Archive]

Posted By: Anonymous

The Hall of Fame doesn't accept loans. Everything in the HoF's collections are donated outright. If it is there presently, it will be there forever.

It may have been part of the Baseball as America tour.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

I'm not certain if that's entirely correct. I was always under the impression that the T206 Wagner on display in Cooperstown was on loan from Barry Halper. I actually recall seeing a small plaque in the display case many years ago that said as much. I don't know what the status on that piece is now, following Barry's death, but I'd certainly be curious to find out.

[Archive]

Posted By: CoreyRS.hanus

My understanding is that prior to Sotheby's sale of Halper's collection, the HOF cherry-picked $8 million from the collection, which is now in the permanent collection (i.e., it is owned outright by the HOF). As to where they got the $8 million, I believe it was given to them by Major League Baseball. Halper for several years prior had been trying to have someone pay retail value for his collection, and at the same time promise to keep it intact. Toward that goal he had engaged a major investment bank to market the collection to prospective purchasers. When that effort failed he used his influence with Major League Baseball to have them buy, on behalf of the HOF, a much smaller portion of the collection.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Corey,

Yes, I recall this story. I always thought the figure was slightly higher than $8M.

I should have mentioned that I saw that plaque that said something to the effect of "On Loan from Barry Halper" (not verbatim) about 20 years ago, so this far predates the Sotheby's sale and Barry's subsequent passing. I would wager that the HOF purchased the Wagner as part of its buying spree, but don't know for certain.

Sorry to derail the original point of this thread, which is interesting in itself. Sorry that I have nothing pertinent to add in that regard.

[Archive]

Posted By: Mark

Never mind... thanks Jim, for clarifying!

[Archive]

Posted By: Mark

Carlton...

If you check back in on this thread, please know that we are EAGERLY awaiting your write-up of the National. Are you getting close? I've been checking your website a couple times a week for the past few months!

Please update us, and thanks!

[Archive]

Posted By: Jim VB

Maris' 61st was caught by 19 year old Sal Durante of Brooklyn. He was immediately taken, by team security, to the Yankee clubhouse where he got to meet Maris after the game. He offered the ball back to Maris who told him to keep it and "make yourself some money kid."

The Yankees insisted that they hold on to the ball for safekeeping, so Sal initialed the ball "SD", to be sure he got the same ball back at a later date. A restaurant owner by the name of Sam Gordon, from Sacramento, CA had offered $5,000 for the ball, so Sal sold it to him. Gordon displayed the ball in his restaurant for a few years and then gave it to Maris.

The Yankees also gave Durante a couple of season passes for the 1962 season.

How it eventually got to the Hall, I do not know, but I believe you can still see the initials "SD" on the ball.

[Archive]

Posted By: Anonymous

The Hall doesn't go on spending sprees. EVERYTHING is donated. The Halper items were purchased by MLB because they felt that some of the items belonged in Cooperstown rather than private collections. I'm sure they would have purchased more if it was financially possible. My understanding is that MLB had an $8M budget for the purchases.

In the past, there may have been items that were temporarily loaned, but nothing that is on permanent display or in the collection is a loaned item.

[Archive]

Posted By: David McDonald

From NYT Oct 2/61




Um. Wow. Vintage cards, scantily-clad Dutch people, uku-zillion penguins, authentic Polynesian maidens, surfing Obama and more at . .
(BBHoF album updated, new E93 album, new Ice Kings album)
http://ImageEvent.com/kawika_o_ka_pakipika
Password=aloha

[Archive]

Posted By: MVSNYC

david- thanks, great article!

hope all is well.

MS

[Archive]

Posted By: CarltonHendricks

Mark,
I was afraid I'd get heat for going out to play!...Thanks for sticking with me...Im working on it. I dont want to make any more promises but I hope to have it finished soon!...One reason it's taken so long is its much bigger this year...plus designing all the pages so it looks snazzy takes nearly as long as writing the story...trust me its a bear...and then I get discouraged when I see how much farther I have to go, and leave off for a while...whine whine...plus I refuse to not have a life since its all pro bono

Ok I'm versed in all the details up to when Maris got the ball from Sam Gordon in Sacramento...then like I say, Maris died in 1985...so then what happened to it?...what happened to the ball between the time Maris died and it went into the HOF?

Corey, Are you saying it went from Maris to Halper?...and then got plucked by the Hall with the eight million?..If so, what are the details of how Halper came into it?did Halper camp out in Maris widows front yard in a pup tent?

I learned about that cherry pick of Halpers stuff by the HOF while writing about the Muller clock...I sort of stumbled onto it, and wrote about my findings in the last two paragraphs of the story, see below:

http://sportsantiques.com/muller_basball_clock_page_2.htm
STORY QUOTE - LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS
I couldnt help notice there wasnt an example of the clock in the 1999 Sothebys auction catalog of the famous Barry Halper baseball collection. It was the worlds greatest collection so I thought it was a little curious he didnt have an example. Then thru some dizzying array of research I happened upon a page of the National Baseball Hall of Fames web site www.baseballhalloffame.org that lists a portion of items from Halpers collection acquired by Major League Baseball and donated to the Hall of Fame in November 1998. And what do you know.there was a small little notation included in the 19th century items that said Wonderful antique clock with 19th century ball players

I called John Odell at the Hall to inquire a little about the circumstances of how it happened to have gotten included in the acquisition. Specifically I wanted to know if Halper just happened to offer it, or if the Hall pursued it. Bingo, John told me it was the Halls initiative. John basically told me that when Halper was going to sell his collection, the Hall wanted certain things to fill holes and strengthen theres. Major League Baseballs deeper pockets came to the rescue and retrieved some items the Hall wanted. Now Im getting into a whole other story to pursue, but anyway..the bottom line was the Hall specifically requested our infamous Muller clock.
END STORY QUOTE

[Archive]

Posted By: CoreyRSh.anus

Carlton,

I wasn't talking about any one Halper item in particular, just how it came about that a significant portion of his collection ended up in the HOF. In regard to the 61st HR ball, I have no information whether it came to the HOF from the Halper acquisition.

[Archive]

Posted By: David Atkatz

Please keep in mind that the only reason Halper's "donation" is being discussed on this thread is
that the question of whether or not the Hall accepts or exhibits loaned items arose.

Maris' 61st was on exhibit at the Hall long before the Halper acquisition, and, in fact, the ball never belonged to him.

(If it had belonged to Halper, Barry would have let us all know it.)

[Archive]

Posted By: Alan O'Connor

[IMG][/IMG]
Hi All-

Sorry to be so slow to weigh in on this topic, but I had to pull this photo from storage. This is the actual photo that Sam Gordon hung in "Sam's Original Ranch Wagon" at 19th & Broadway in Sacramento. It shows Sam giving Sal & his wife $5,000 and getting the ball from Sal. Maris is watching. Sam was a great fan of baseball and the Ranch Wagon was just a few blocks down the street from the PCL Sacramento Solons ball park, Edmonds Field. Sam was also a Solons fan and sponsored the 1958 team photo which had the caption, "Sam, the man who brought food to Sacramento" across the bottom.

I grew up in the neighborhood (ate a lot of Sam's sandwiches)and heard a lot about Sam when I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. One of the local "legends" is that Sam gave the ball to Maris the day that Sal got the check and Maris took it home with him to North Dakota. Supposedly, Sam was to later drive to ND and pick up Maris and go with him and the ball to Cooperstown. When Sam got to ND, Maris went to a closet and grabbed the first ball he came to out of big pile of balls. So, the story says that the ball that went to the HOF was a random ball, not the actual one he hit. I have no idea if any of this is true, but it was a great local story!

Has anyone else ever heard this story?

Alan