harry caray restaurant group

Restaurant CEO Buys Sammy Sosa's Corked Bat

Harry Caray Restaurant Group President Grant DePorter has a thing for Chicago sports memorabilia. Last time we wrote about him was when the Harry Caray Restaurant Group, a chain of Illinois steakhouses named after the popular sports announcer, announced that it would pay $50,000 for the hockey puck that launched off the stick of Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane and ended overtime in Game Six of the NHL playoffs, bringing the Stanley Cup to Chicago. DePorter also helped to buy the infamous "Bartman ball," the baseball that Cubs fan Steve Bartman interfered with during the 2003 National League Championship Series. That ball was eventually bought for over $113,000 detonated on live television to help alleviate the Cubs curse (no luck so far).

Now ESPN reports that he's has picked up another intriguing piece of sports history. Former Chicago Cubs pitcher Mike Remlinger decided to auction off the broken barrel of the corked bat used by Sammy Sosa when playing against the Tampa Bay Rays in 2003. When the bat broke it exposed the cork and Sosa was ejected from the game and later suspended.

Before the auction Remlinger had put a secret reserve on the bat that was not met by the October 31 deadline. DePorter, who had the highest bid, bought the bat after the auction. Remlinger said that DePorter agreed to pay the highest bid at $14,407 plus roughly $2,000 in commission to Schulte Auctions. Remlinger had hoped to make $15,000 from the bat.

The ESPN story documents a bit of the behind-the-scenes drama. Apparently Sosa wasn't too happy that Remlinger had the bat and wanted to sell it, a spokeswoman for Sosa passed on word to the Chicago Tribune that if Remlinger needed money he just should have asked Sosa. On "The Waddle & Silvy Show" on ESPN 1000, Remlinger said in part, "it really doesn't matter to me. What's done is done. If he still wants to give me some money that would be fine."

DePorter seems to be a bit obsessed with the Cubs curse, he used the secret bidder name of Charles Murphy, the name of the Cubs owner in 1908, the last time the Cubs won the World Series.

Tags: chicago cubs, corked bat, harry caray restaurant group, mike remlinger, sammy sosa, sports memorabilia

$50,000 Reward Offered For Gamewinning Puck

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Sports

Sports memorabilia related to winning moments often sells for a great deal of money. Gamewinning balls are especially prized and I guess that goes for pucks too. The Harry Caray Restaurant Group, owners of a chain of Illinois steakhouses named after the popular sports announcer, has announced that it will pay $50,000 for the hockey puck that launched off the stick of Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane and ended overtime in Game Six of the NHL playoffs, bringing the Stanley Cup to Chicago. The last time the puck was seen publicly was when it was in the Flyers' net.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Harry Caray Restaurant Group President Grant DePorter helped to buy the infamous "Bartman ball," the baseball that Cubs fan Steve Bartman interfered with during the 2003 National League Championship Series. That ball was eventually bought for over $113,000 detonated on live television to help alleviate the Cubs curse (no luck so far). It's assumed that the missing puck will receive a much kinder fate.

Tags: chicago black hawks, Chicago Blackhawks, Harry Caray, harry caray restaurant group, nhl, stanley cup, Stanley Cup Finals 2010, stanley cup hockey, stanley cup playoffs