The baseball that rolled through Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner in the 1986 World Series cost Boston fans a lot of heartbreak. The ball's monetary cost was $418,000 at an auction held Friday.
The ball sold for $418,250 and 10 bidders were in on the action in Dallas, according to Heritage Sports, the auction house that conducted the sale.
Buckner was Boston's biggest scapegoat in 1986, when the ground ball hit by New York Mets center fielder Mookie Wilson went through Buckner's legs during Game 6 of the World Series, tying the game. The Mets went on to win the game and the following Game 7 to win the World Series.
"The dreams are that you're gonna have a great series and win. The nightmares are that you're gonna let the winning run score on a ground ball through your legs. Those things happen, you know. I think a lot of it is just fate," Buckner told Boston's WBZ-TV just 19 days before that fateful Game 6, according to Heritage Sports.
The ball has a colorful history, having once been owned by troubled actor Charlie Sheen, who bought it for $93,000 in 1992.
The Buckner ball had been in the possession of Los Angeles songwriter Seth Swirsky since 2000, when he bought the collector's item for $64,000.
Considering the $418,250 price the ball fetched, Swirsky is walking away with a handsome profit.
The Red Sox were looking for their first World Series championship in 68 years when the scrappy Mets put a wrench into Boston's date with destiny.
They would break the draught of not having won a championship since 1918 nearly nine decades later in 2004. It took the Red Sox just three years to win their seventh title in 2007.