A New York Yankees jersey worn by baseball legend Roger Maris during his record-breaking 1961 season is expected to bring in up to $1 million, Heritage Auction recently announced.
Maris hit 61 home runs during the 1961 season, breaking Babe Ruth’s 1927 single-season record of 60 home runs. Many baseball fans disputed the validity of Maris’ record at the time because the Major League Baseball season was only 154 games in 1927 and by 1961 it had been extended to 162 games, but that argument has faded in the years since.
Maris’ record held until 1998, when it was broken by St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire.
Maris, a right fielder, wore just two Yankees home jerseys during the 1961 season, making this auction piece especially valuable. The photo authentication service MeiGray matched the jersey to 13 games, including three games where Maris hit a combined five home runs. The other jersey Maris wore that season is currently held at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Bidding on Maris’ jersey has already exceeded $300,000, with 12 days remaining until the auction closes, during Heritage’s February 22-23 Winter Platinum Night Sports Catalog Auction.
Several other valuable pieces of baseball memorabilia are up for bidding at Heritage, with the auction house also showing a Babe Ruth rookie baseball card and a Mickey Mantle jersey.
“It is always an honor and a privilege to work with these incredible pieces of American history,” said Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Auctions at Heritage, in a statement. “Those uniforms worn by Hall of Fame greats during defining moments, those cards deemed the most beautiful and the rarest, those treasures from games and careers about which books have been written and movies have been made.”
Aside from baseball memorabilia, there will also be significant pieces of football, basketball, wrestling and track history. Bidding on the jacket that sprinter John Carlos wore when he raised the Black Power first at the 1968 Olympics has already exceeded $18,000, while one of Tom Brady’s jerseys from the 2017 National Football League season is expected to bring in at least $250,000.