Buckner Ball sells for $418,250 via Heritage
By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor
There’s a price for imperfection.
The baseball that Mookie Wilson hit in the ninth inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series that went between Bill Buckner‘s legs and propelled the New York Mets to a Game 7 — and a championship — sold for four figures Friday night through Heritage Auctions in Dallas.
Specifically, it went for $418,250.
The Buckner Ball wasn’t the only prime piece of legendary baseball botch memorabilia to sell on Friday as the cap worn by Jose Canseco as a member of the Texas Rangers when a ball bounced off his head for a home run against Cleveland in 1993 also sold. (Need a Canseco checklist or OPG? Click here.)
It went for $11,950.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
as a met fan i dont really think you can put a price on that ball. i remember that game, routine ground ball, i was like thats it, game over and under buckners legs it went. it was a good time to be a mets fan. go mets.
Red Sox have won the world series (x2) since the “play”. This balls signifigence now in no way commads that kind of price. Whomever way overpaid for that ball….guess they had to have it.
Phillies: Maybe, um, the buyer is a Mets fan?
Just because the Sox have won the series since then, I don’t believe that the Buckner play (for better or worse) is any less important. $400,000 might be a bit much for a Mookie Wilson signed ball, but it sounds pretty good for an iconic piece of baseball history.
bill johnson … must not remember the game as well as you think, because the Mets had already tied it before Buckner’s error.
Chris….um….$400k+ for a signed Mookie Wilson ball? You are probably right…a METS FAN!
not a baseball fan, but that’s a lot of money
This ball is a major piece of baseball history – whether you’re a Mets fan or not, this was one of the biggest comebacks in World Series history – and everyone interested in baseball has seen the play a thousand times. That’s what makes it expensive. It’s been sold several times – always for big money.
And Zotster is entirely correct, the game was already tied up when Mookie hit this dribbler up the line so the game would not have been over… For those of you who care – if you watch the actual footage, it’s debatable that if Buckner fields that ball cleanly that he (or the pitcher) has any chance of beating Mookie to first in any case.