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Lot # 972: 1954 Willie Mays "The Catch" World Series Game 1 Ticket Stub PSA GD 2

Starting Bid: $300.00

Bids: 24 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "2023 Fall Classic",
which ran from 10/29/2023 7:00 PM to
11/18/2023 10:00 PM



Presented is a Sept. 29, 1954, ticket stub to World Series Game 1 at the Polo Grounds in New York City when Hall of Fame center fielder Willie Mays made the most famous catch in baseball history, a stupendous catch of a fly ball that soon and forever became known simply as "The Catch." The New York Giants were hosting the Cleveland Indians, and the score was 2-2 in the top of the 8th inning. Sal Maglie was pitching for the Giants, and he walked the first batter, Larry Doby, and then Al Rosen singled to put Cleveland runners on first and second. With Vic Wertz, a left-handed power hitter up next, Giants Hall of Fame manager Leo Durocher brought in lefty Don Liddle to face Wertz. On a 2-1 pitch, Wertz hit a long blast to center field. Jack Brickhouse, announcing the game with Russ Hodges on NBC TV, described the action: "There's a long drive...way back at center field... way back, back, it is a ...Oh, my! Caught by Mays! The runner at second, Doby, is able to go to third. Willie Mays just brought this crowd to its feet with a catch that must have been an optical illusion to a lot of people. Boy!" Mays had made a beautiful, over-the-shoulder catch at approximately 420 from home plate, and then he whirled and threw to second base, preventing Doby from scoring and holding Rosen at first. Lefty pitcher Liddle was removed in favor of righty Marv Grissom. After allowing the only batter he faced to hit a monstrous ball that would have been a home run in most almost any other ballpark and would have been an extra base hit scoring two runs if not for an almost unworldly fielder such as Mays, Liddle supposedly said to pitching coach Frank Shellenback, "Well, I got my man." Grissom held the Indians from scoring in the 8th, and the Giants won the game in the tenth inning and went on to sweep the World Series. The offered ticket stub is a $4.20 standing room ducat. It measures approx. 2.2x4.2". In part, the ticket reads, "1954 WORLD SERIES/National LEAGUE vs AMERICAN LEAGUE/New York Giants/Game 1." The ticket has been encapsulated and PSA graded STUB GOOD 2. In baseball, only one play is universally known as "The Catch," and this offered ticket stub makes a special, valued vintage souvenir of this immortal play.

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