Browsing: sells

Baseball

Gehrig’s jersey from final Yankees home game sells for $2.7M

  • blank

    Dan HajduckyOct 22, 2025, 05:59 PM ET

    Close

      Dan Hajducky is a staff writer for ESPN. He has an MFA in creative writing from Fairfield University and played on the men’s soccer teams at Fordham and Southern Connecticut State universities.

Lou Gehrig’s uniform from his final Yankee Stadium appearance has sold for $2.712 million at auction, the most ever paid for a piece of Gehrig memorabilia.

The uniform, which was worn by Gehrig at Game 2 of the 1939 World Series, was part of an auction of Dr. G.B. Espy’s Collection, presented by Christie’s and Hunt Auctions. The winning bid included a buyer’s premium.

Gehrig was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — which would later be known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — in 1939 and played only eight games that season before being forced to retire. His then-record streak of 2,130 consecutive games played would end, but he stayed with the Yankees and delivered lineup cards to umpires. The uniform sold at auction was photo-matched by MeiGray Authenticated to Oct. 5, 1939, the last time Gehrig wore a Yankees uniform at home.

He died June 2, 1941.

The uniform worn by Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig at Game 2 of the 1939 World Series — Gehrig’s final appearance at Yankee Stadium — sold for $2.712 million at auction. Courtesy of Christie’s & Hunt Auctions

“The jersey had been originally preserved by a dry cleaner who was tasked with cleaning the uniforms for the [Yankees’ affiliate] Newark Bears,” the lot description reads. “Noticing that Lou Gehrig’s jersey was among those headed for Minor League use[,] the cleaner coveted the final home shirt worn by the Iron Horse and retained it for over 50 years.”

Espy — whom Hunt Auctions president David Hunt called “a pioneering collector of historic memorabilia during the formative years of the medium” — purchased the jersey in 1991 for $115,000. It is not the same jersey Gehrig wore during his “Luckiest Man” speech on July 4, 1939. The whereabouts of that jersey are unknown.

In the same auction, a bat that was described by PSA’s John Taube as “very likely” used during Gehrig’s final World Series in 1938 sold for $1.197 million, and Jackie Robinson’s Baseball Hall of Fame ring sold for $693,000. Both prices included a buyer’s premium.

Source link

Basketball

First No. 24 jersey worn by Lakers’ Kobe Bryant sells for $889K

  • blank

    Dan HajduckyOct 2, 2025, 02:37 PM ET

    Close

      Dan Hajducky is a staff writer for ESPN. He has an MFA in creative writing from Fairfield University and played on the men’s soccer teams at Fordham and Southern Connecticut State universities.

The first No. 24 jersey worn by Kobe Bryant with the Los Angeles Lakers recently sold for $889,000, including buyer’s premium, at Sotheby’s.

A jersey used by Jerry West from 1964 to 1967 also sold for $533,400 on the same night.

Bryant wore the jersey while posting 23 points in a 118-112 victory against the Seattle Supersonics on Nov. 3, 2006. He would score 50 points or more in a game on 10 occasions in that 2006-07 season en route to his second straight — and final — league scoring title.

Lakers star Kobe Bryant wore this jersey — his first with No. 24 — while scoring 23 points in a 118-112 victory against the Seattle Supersonics on Nov. 3, 2006. It recently sold for $889,000 at auction. Courtesy of Sotheby’s

The jersey is signed by him with the inscriptions “FIRST 24” and “1/1” on the jersey’s numbers, including an Upper Deck hologram, as the company had an autograph and memorabilia deal with Bryant until 2009.

MeiGray Authenticated also photo-matched the jersey to the Lakers’ 2006 media day in October.

The most ever paid for any Bryant jersey is $7 million — for a jersey that was photo-matched to seven games from his 1996-97 rookie season. That jersey was sold by Sotheby’s in April.

Editor’s Picks

  • blank

West’s jersey was definitively worn during Game 6 of the 1965 and 1966 Western Division finals and Game 2 of the 1966 NBA Finals, according to photo-matching by Sports Investors Authentication.

SIA’s letter of authenticity states the jersey was “likely” worn during both the 1965 and 1966 NBA Finals. The Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics in both those series, with West averaging 33.8 and 33.9 points per game, respectively.

The West jersey lot also included a warm-up jacket, shorts and socks, which the auction house “also believes to be game-worn.” In 1967, Frank O’Neill, a former Lakers trainer, received the items when the team moved to The Forum and they’ve remained in a private collection until now.

A collector purchased a jersey photo-matched to four games from the 1969-70 Lakers season for $868,000 in May, an all-time record for a West item.

The jersey that Wayne Gretzky wore in his final NHL game for the New York Rangers on April 18, 1999, was predicted to sell for more than $1 million, but Sotheby’s confirmed that bidding didn’t meet a set reserve price and the jersey went unsold.

Source link

This golf ball sells out every time. But why?

The Titleist Pro V1 Left Dot golf ball has amassed a cult following. It’s never been added to the retail lineup, and is available only in select fittings, on Tour and in limited releases on a random schedule from Titleist. Even when those releases hit, you’re allowed to purchase only two boxes at a time from Titleist. So the question then is, why? Why is the Pro V1 Left Dot so sought after? And with this amount of popularity, why hasn’t the ball made its way out of the “Custom Performance Option” program?

The difference between Pro V1 and Pro V1 Left Dot

As a variant of the Pro V1, the Left Dot option takes the feel and short-game performance that players love from the standard Pro V1 and tweaks the long-game performance. In your longer irons and woods, the Left Dot is going to launch a spin just a touch lower. This lower, more penetrating trajectory is due in part to the spherically tiled, 352 tetrahedral dimple design of the Left Dot, as compared to the 388 dimples of the standard Pro V1 model. Thirty-six dimples may not seem like a big change, but keep in mind the size of a golf ball — it’s a huge difference. Lots of players have also said that this new flight is extrememly stable in high winds, which can be a worry for lower-spinning golf balls.

Titleist Pro V1 Left Dot.
Titleist’s Pro V1 Left Dot

Titleist

Who’s the Left Dot for?

Although the difference in performance is easy to understand — and in my testing easy to see — it’s not an easy ball to fit into. The Pro V1 is already the lower-spinning version of Titleist’s high performance lineup when compared to the Pro V1x. So it takes a special player to need the advantages of the Pro V1 Left Dot and its lower-launching, lower-spinning properties. My personal worry when putting players into lower spin-golf balls is having a low-spin miss. If you don’t produce enough spin, the ball is going to fall out of the air more quickly, particularly to the pull side. Yes, I’m talking about that dreaded duck hook. So, for me, if a player is looking at something like the Pro V1 Left Dot, they need to be in total control of their golf ball. This usually means that they player has the ability to manufacture spin, or that they are already a high-spin player who’s able to take spin off when they need it.

I like to tell players that we want to find them a golf ball that naturally sits into a usable launch and spin window rather than forcing that preferred window by choosing whatever golf ball makes their equipment work. For a good player who’s able to control their flight really well, the standard Pro V1 is probably going to check all the boxes. It’s a wonderful feeling golf ball with a very neutral spin and launch profile that leaves room for the player to manipulate it.

tony finau hits out of a bunker at the us open
Tony Finau and his Titleist Pro V1 Left Dot get up and down from a bunker at the 2024 U.S. Open.

Getty Images

The Left Dot, however, would work great in the bag of a player whose launch ceiling is just a bit too high, and tweaks to their equipment are out of the question. It also makes for a great golf ball in less-than-ideal conditions. A lower flight usually gives more control, particularly in windy conditions. In a Titleist social media post from 2021, Tony Finau said of the Left Dot: “It’s very stable. Crosswinds, down wind, into the wind, I seem to get proper numbers with it.”

Why hasn’t it left the Titleist ‘Custom Performance Options’ program?

The short answer is that there isn’t enough true performance demand for the golf ball. It makes up less than 6 percent of all Titleist usage across major tours. It’s won majors, it’s in the bag of big names like Finau and rising star Jake Knapp, but it’s still a very niche golf ball. Its use is not as widespread as something like the Titleist Pro V1x (left dash), which was also originally a CPO offering. This isn’t to say that the golf ball hasn’t inspired other launches. The High Gradient ZG Process Core now found in the standard Pro V1 was originally designed in the Left Dot model, and then after testing and success, it was brought to the retail Pro V1 golf ball.

Dimple patterns in the CPO program continue to be tested and adopted into the retail lineups. As I said above, it’s just a niche customer for this golf ball, and for the general consumer base, it’s likely not going to be a huge benefit for players who are playing a Pro V1. Most golfers could probably switch to a lower lofted driver, or find a better launching shaft for their driver and call it a day. But at the highest levels of golf, with the most amount of control over their golf ball, some elite players prefer to play the Left Dot and enjoy its benefits.

The golf balls are already sold out at Titleist.com, but search around, as there are some other sources with some still in stock before you have to pony up on eBay for some.

Is your driver launching too high, but the rest of the bag looks good? Book a fitting at True Spec!

Listen to Johnny Wunder talk with Patrick Reed (who won the 2018 Masters with a Left Dot) about his equipment on our latest episode of Fully Equipped.