MLB sells Aaron Judge dropped World Series ball at auction for $43,510

The ball that New York Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge dropped in the fifth inning of Game 5 of the 2024 World Series was sold in an official Major League Baseball hosted auction for $43,510 on Thursday night. The auction drew a total of 101 bids over the 10-day period it was live.

The Yankees held a 5-0 lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers heading into the fifth inning of that game, but Judge’s error helped the visiting Dodgers to a five-run inning and an eventual 7-6 win that made them World Series champions.

Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run ball from this season became the most expensive game-used ball of all-time when it sold for $4.392 million in October. The most expensive ball to sell from the 2024 World Series is already set to be Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam ball from Game 1, which is currently up for auction, with bidding at $600,000 at the time of writing. That auction ends this weekend.

The Judge ball is also far from the most valuable World Series error ball. That distinction belongs to the ball that famously rolled through Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner’s legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series against the New York Mets. The ball was autographed by Mets star Mookie Wilson and gifted to the team’s traveling secretary and was eventually sold for $418,250 in 2012.

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(Top photo: Elsa/Getty Images)