Issue Date: March 26, 2006

Sports Collectibles

Baseball's lost treasures

Check your attic! Experts reveal the top five Holy Grails of America's pastime. Could they still be out there somewhere?

By Dennis McCafferty

If you have any idea where these valuable items could be, we're all ears. Send us an e-mail at usaw@usaweekend.com. Or use this form.

At the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., there are items such as the uniform, cap and shoes Hank Aaron wore to hit his record-breaking 715th home run, as well as all seven caps Nolan Ryan wore when he pitched no-hitters. But there are many other highly valued artifacts you won't find: As the years have passed and legend grows, certain memorabilia have emerged as lost treasures. (If you have any idea where these valuable items could be, we're all ears. Send us an e-mail at usaw@usaweekend.com.)

Call them the Rosebuds of Baseball or the Holy Grails of America's Pastime. They'd fetch a pretty price, for certain. But there's a catch: Nobody seems to know what happened to them. USA WEEKEND Magazine has convened a panel of experts from the Baseball Hall of Fame and two of the top sports memorabilia companies in the country, Memorabilia Evaluation and Research Services (Mears) and Lelands.com, to provide this ranked list of baseball's greatest lost treasures, along with their estimated value, as provided by Lelands.

5. Bill Wambsganss' unassisted triple-play glove ($250,000): Not familiar with the unique feat of the Cleveland player they called "Wamby"? On Oct. 10, 1920, he was playing for the Indians in the World Series when he performed the first and only unassisted triple play in series history. An unidentified man contacted the hall about 20 years ago and said Wamby had dropped off the glove for him to repair. He told them that the former player never returned to pick it up. The man assured hall officials he would turn the glove over to them. "But we never heard back from him again," says Ted Spencer, vice president and chief curator at the hall.

4. Jackie Robinson's first bat ($350,000): Robinson broke the color barrier when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, braving taunts and threats on and off the field. He made his debut on April 15, 1947; unfortunately, he went 0 for 3. But it didn't matter. The debut bat of the future Hall of Famer would be worth a small fortune. Where it ended up ... who knows? It's believed that, at the time, nobody pulled the bat to preserve it for the ages, so its whereabouts are now unknown. If it were to be recovered, it would have meaning beyond baseball. "Robinson transcends the sport," says Josh Evans, founder of Lelands. "He changed America. Collectors appreciate that."

3. Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World" home run ball ($1 million): On Oct. 3, 1951, Thomson, a New York Giants outfielder, hit a home run off Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca at the Polo Grounds to win the National League pennant. "This is still the greatest event ever: Like the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team win, it was an all-American moment," Evans says. "When Thomson's home run allowed the hapless Giants to beat the Dodgers, everyone was watching or listening to it." Many claimed to have this ball, but not a single one has been properly authenticated. In fact, Thomson told hall officials that a dozen baseballs ended up at the clubhouse the day after the game, each one said to be the home run ball. "Any one of the balls could have been it," Spencer says. "But who knows for sure?"

2. Joe Jackson's 1919 home jersey ($1.2 million): Collectors value "home" jerseys more than "away" uniforms. And no jersey in baseball history conveys a story of such tragic proportions. Jackson's career .356 batting average ranks third all-time. But the 1919 "Black Sox" World Series scandal destroyed Jackson's career. He and seven other players were banished for life for allegedly throwing the championship, despite the fact that Jackson batted .375 during the series. Today, his jersey is nowhere to be found. "Joe Jackson is legendary for his bat and his mystique," says Dave Bushing, the official authenticator for Mears (mearsonline.com). "The movie Field of Dreams revived public interest in the debate over whether he belongs in the Hall of Fame. So the home World Series jersey -- a great symbol of his greatness and the sadness of his story -- would be of tremendous value."

1. And the most-sought-after item ... Babe Ruth's "called shot" home run ball ($2 million): Nobody combined baseball skills and a zeal for life like Ruth did. He had an endless appetite for food, booze and women. But he also was an engaging man with a fondness for children. This home run ball signifies his final dramatic moment in a World Series -- and perhaps his most storied home run ever. Although some doubt has been cast about what really happened, the legend remains this: In 1932, against the Cubs in Game 3, Ruth reportedly pointed to the center field bleachers during an at-bat, as if to say that's where he was going to hit his next home run. On the next pitch, he did. The ball's value remains the highest of the lost treasures, not so much because of the accomplishment, but rather the icon behind it. "The best will always be Ruth," Evans says. "He remains larger than life. He drank. He womanized. He gave that dramatic farewell speech at Yankee Stadium. And he is the greatest slugger ever."