January 08, 2005|By Joe Christensen | Joe Christensen,SUN STAFF
The baseball that rolled through Bill Buckner's legs in 1986 made its way to auction six years later, and actor Charlie Sheen bought it for $93,500.
The ball that Carlton Fisk hit off the foul pole in 1975 eventually fetched $113,273.
So what price would the Boston Red Sox faithful put on the ball that officially signified the end of the great curse, after 86 years? For now, that's up to Red Sox first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who caught the ball to end the World Series and refuses to give it back.
"It's in a safety-deposit box with my [2000] Olympic gold medal," Mientkiewicz told The Boston Globe in yesterday's editions. "We had it authenticated by Major League Baseball the day after the World Series so no one can claim they have it. That's my retirement fund. A guy offered me 500 bucks for it, but I think it's worth more than that."
On the day those comments raised the fury of Red Sox Nation, it raised another question locally: What happened the last time Baltimore had such a ball? Flash back to Oct. 16, 1983. Late afternoon at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. One out from their third World Series title, the Orioles led the Phillies, 5-0, when Garry Maddox hit a soft liner to shortstop.
And there stood Cal Ripken, squeezing the ball so tight, his glove shook.
Like Mientkiewicz, Ripken put it away for safekeeping.
But unlike Mientkiewicz, Ripken was not a bit player on a team that hadn't won a World Series title since 1918. Ripken won his first Most Valuable Player award that season and eventually became an indelible part of Orioles lore.
No one in Baltimore thought twice about letting him keep the ball. Today, Ripken has that ball on loan to the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum. When it's not there, Ripken keeps it on display in his basement, next to his two Gold Glove Awards, according to his spokesman, John Maroon.
"Whenever anyone asks Cal what the most meaningful moment was in his career," Maroon said, "they always expect to hear about [his 2,131st consecutive game] or his final All-Star Game, or his major league debut. But he always gives the same answer. He always says it was that little humpback liner to end the '83 World Series. He talks about it very glowingly because of all it signified as a team accomplishment."
It was Ripken's only world championship.
The Orioles won their first in 1966 over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Center fielder Paul Blair caught the final out off the bat of Lou Johnson, touching off a huge celebration. The whereabouts of that ball were unknown to the Orioles yesterday, but Bill Stetka, the team's media relations director, had a call in to Blair.
In 1970, the Orioles clinched their World Series triumph over the Cincinnati Reds in fitting fashion - a ground ball to the hero of that Series, third baseman Brooks Robinson, who threw to first baseman Boog Powell for the final out.
Yesterday, Powell told Stetka he did the same thing with that ball he always did after an Orioles victory: He gave it to the pitcher - in that case, Mike Cuellar, who could not be reached for comment.
Still, there has never been a controversy over the keeper of these Baltimore treasures like the one enveloping Boston yesterday.
Mientkiewicz landed with the Red Sox on July 31 and hit just .215 over the final 49 games. He entered Game 4 of the World Series as a defensive replacement for David Ortiz, the MVP of Boston's miracle comeback one week earlier against the New York Yankees.
In the St. Louis Cardinals' last gasp of 2004, Edgar Renteria hit a bouncer back to the mound. Red Sox closer Keith Foulke grabbed it, took a couple steps and underhanded the ball to Mientkiewicz.
As New England celebrated the end to the fabled Curse of the Bambino, Mientkiewicz clung to the ball. He later gave it to his wife, Jodi, who put it in her purse and had it authenticated the next day after the team flight back to Boston.
Mientkiewicz told the Globe he wouldn't mind keeping the ball in his family. But, he added, "I can be bought. I'm thinking, there's four years at Florida State for one of my kids. At least."
But Red Sox president Larry Lucchino told the Globe that the club plans to ask Mientkiewicz for the ball. "We want it to be part of Red Sox archives or museums so it can be shared with the fans," Lucchino said. "We would hope he would understand the historical nature of it."
But in a world where Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball from 1998 fetched $3.2 million, how much is the Mientkiewicz ball actually worth? Consider that the lineup card Red Sox manager Terry Francona filled out for Game 4 drew $165,010 in an auction on MLB.com. The ball is probably worth "some multiple of that" but probably less than $1 million, said David Kohler, the president of Sports Cards Plus, a sports memorabilia giant.
Kohler said the Mientkiewicz ball is worth much more than Ripken's ball but added, "If sold in the right auction with the right advertising, the Ripken ball could be worth six figures."
But to Orioles first base coach Rick Dempsey, the World Series clincher he once held is truly priceless.
He was the MVP of the 1983 Series for the Orioles, but five years later he was looking for a job. He went to the Dodgers' offices and waited outside the door of first-year general manager Fred Claire for four hours.
Dempsey begged Claire to sign him for the major league minimum and promised he'd be a productive player. Sure enough, Dodgers catcher Mike Scioscia got hurt in Game 2 of the 1988 World Series, and when Orel Hershiser got that last strikeout to beat the favored Oakland Athletics, Dempsey was the one who caught the ball.
In the clubhouse celebration, he gave it to Claire.
"It's still on his mantel today," Dempsey said.
