Kirk Gibson

Kirk Gibson's Artifacts Bring in $1.19 Million at Auction

AP reported that a father-son sports collectors team from Santa Barbara bought the bat that Kirk Gibson used for his historic home run in the 1988 World Series for $575,912.40 on November 14 in SCP Auctions' October/November auction, and also took home the four other Gibson artifacts on sale. The bid for Gibson's bat is the second-highest amount paid for a game-used bat, behind only Babe Ruth's signed bat used for the first home run at Yankee Stadium, which SCP sold in 2004 for $1.265 million.

Chad and Doug Dreier of the Dreier Group paid $1.19 million for the five items, which included Gibson's home run bat, his game-worn Los Angeles Dodgers jersey ($303,277.20), batting helmet ($153,388.80), NL Most Valuable Player Award ($110,293.20), and World Series trophy ($45,578.40). Proceeds from the sale of the World Series trophy and MVP award will benefit the Kirk Gibson Foundation to continue Gibson's support of Michigan State University athletic programs and to help fund his partial scholarship programs at Clarkston (Michigan) H.S. and Waterford (Michigan) H.S., in honor of his parents, who were educators at those schools.

Other items that found new homes at the auction are a 1934 Babe Ruth professional-model bat used by Ruth to hit career home run No. 702 ($137,865.60), a Ty Cobb H&B side-written professional model game-used bat ($75,330), and a 1953 Mickey Mantle New York Yankees game-worn, autographed road jersey ($62,256).

Gallery: Kirk Gibson's Artifacts Bring in $1.19 Million at Auction