A ball that New York Yankees legend Lou Gehrig (a.k.a. “the Iron Horse”) hit into the bleachers in Game #2 of the 1928 World Series is expected to fetch about $200,000 at auction.
The ball has been in the hands of the Gott family for 84 years, and it is being auctioned to help pay Michael Gott’s medical school tuition.
So it seems that the Gotts “got game.”
The ball was caught (and dropped) by Buddy Kurland, Michael’s great great uncle, but Kurland’s seatmate picked up it and handed to him, and the rest is history.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times …
For years, the baseball sat on display in the window of Buddy Kurland’s shop in South Manchester, Conn., but eventually it ended up in a drawer in Elizabeth Gott’s Stamford, Conn., home. With her 30-year-old son’s medical school loans nearing $200,000, she said, it seemed like the right time to sell the ball.
The transaction is being handled by Hunt Actions, the same firm that will be auctioning Jim Palmer’s memorabilia . The firm is accepting online pre-bids for the Gehrig baseball through July 9. At this writing, the highest online bid is $49,500. The actual auction will apparently take place live and in person at the Kansas City Convention Center in conjunction with the MLB All-Star Game . The Hunt website notes that Lou Gehrig baseballs are “exceedingly rare.”
Michael Gott’s mother Elizabeth told the media that “[The ball] should be in the hands of someone who really loves it and has a passion for it. Right now we have a passion for my son and his career.” The October 5, 1928 Lou Gehrig home run was a three-run jack that helped the Yankees prevail over the St. Louis Cardinals by a score of 9-3.
Former Yankee Don Larsen, who pitched a perfect game in the 1956 World Series, recently decided to auction his game uniform to pay for his grandsons’ college tuition.
Lou Gehrig’s life was tragically cut short by ALS, which later became known as Lou Gehrig’s disease .
Watch Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech at Yankee Stadium:
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