Freddie Freeman’s World Series Game 1 walk-off grand slam ball sells for $1.56 million at auction

LAGUNA NIGUEL — Freddie Freeman’s historic walk-off grand slam ball from Game 1 of the World Series has sold for $1.56 million at auction.

The bidding at SCP Auctions went into the late hours of Saturday night, according to a statement from the auction house on Sunday. It didn’t say who bought the ball.

Freeman, the Dodgers’ first baseman, came to the plate on a sprained right ankle with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning of the World Series opener against the New York Yankees. He hit the first pitch from Nestor Cortes 413 feet for the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history.

The Dodgers won the game, 6-3, and went on to claim the franchise’s eighth World Series championship in five games. Freeman, who broke records by homering in the first four games and matched a Fall Classic mark with 12 RBIs, was named the World Series MVP.

The ball landed in the right field pavilion, where it was corralled by 10-year-old Zachary Ruderman, who lives in Los Angeles. The ball rolled from the seat in front of him to his feet and he batted it to his father, Nico, who jumped on it.

The fifth-grader had been told he was leaving school early that day to get his braces removed. Instead, his parents took him to Dodger Stadium.

The Ruderman family, in a statement from SCP Auctions, said they hoped the baseball would one day be displayed in Dodger Stadium.

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Freeman’s home run ball was the second ball connected to the Dodgers to be auctioned this season. The ball hit by Shohei Ohtani that made him the first player in major league history with at least 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season sold for nearly $4.4 million.

Ohtani’s ball set a record for the sale of any sports ball, surpassing Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball, which sold for roughly $3.05 million in 1999.

Freeman’s homer surpassed Aaron Judge’s 62nd home run ball, which sold for $1.5 million in 2022.

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