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Lot # 903: 1959 Harvey Haddix "Perfect" Game Sterling Silver Presentational Bowl Gifted to Umpire Hal Dixon (Dixon Collection)

Starting Bid: $300.00

Bids: 6 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "Fall Classic 2022",
which ran from 11/20/2022 7:00 PM to
12/10/2022 10:00 PM



Displayed is a beautiful sterling silver presentational bowl gifted to National League umpire Hal Dixon to commemorate the May 26, 1959 "Perfect Game" pitched by Harvey Haddix. In what some consider the best Major League game ever pitched, Pittsburgh Pirates left-hander Haddix faced the Milwaukee Braves at Milwaukee's County Stadium. The Braves had won the last two National League pennants, and they were the defending World Champions. The heart of the powerful Braves' batting order included sluggers Eddy Mathews, Hank Aaron, and Joe Adcock. Dixon umpired at third base. Haddix was masterful, and he utilized a repertoire of only two pitchers - a fastball and a curve - to pitch a "perfect game" for nine innings. However, the Braves' right-hander Lew Burdette was simultaneously shutting out Pittsburgh. So, the game went into extra innings. Burdette kept throwing his shutout threw 13 innings, and Haddix continued his perfect game through 12 innings as the game stayed scoreless. In the bottom of the 13th inning, with one out, the Braves' Felix Mantilla reached first base on a throwing error by Don Hoak, the Pirate third baseman. Mantilla was sacrificed to second base by Mathews, and Hank Aaron was intentionally walked. Then, Joe Adcock hit a Haddix pitch over the right field fence (but within a second 'outer" fence) for a "home run." Mantilla scored, but Aaron stopped running, thinking the Adcock blast was not over the home run fence, and Adcock passed Aaron on the base paths, creating an eventual ruling that only Mantilla's winning run counted and that the final score would be 1-0. Initially, Haddix's marvelous game was listed as a perfect game, but in 1991, Major League Baseball changed the scoring rules to say that a no-hitter "is a game in which a pitcher or pitchers complete a game of nine innings or more without allowing a hit." Thus, Haddix's brilliant game was no longer officially considered a perfect game. Haddix seemed unperturbed by the ruling. "It's okay," he said. "I know what I did." The bowl comes from the Hal Dixon Collection. Dixon was a National League umpire for seven years 1953-57). He umpired in the 1957 Major League All-Star Game and the 1959 World Series. Dixon left the profession over a salary dispute. The bowl is 6.25" in diameter. Engraved on the bowl is "HAL DIXON/IN APPRECIATION OF UMPIRING A PERFECT GAME AT MILWAUKEE/MAY 26, 1959." Underneath the above is engraved "HARVEY HADDIX" as a simulated signature. On the bottom of the bowl is stamped "Wallace Sterling" and the bowl weighs 356 grams. The bowl is in Excellent condition. The personal nature of the gift from Haddix to one of the game's umpires enhances the value of this memento from possibly the best game ever pitched.

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