Heritage Auctions offers home run baseballs from ‘The 500 Club’

Heritage Auctions will present an assortment of home run baseballs in its February 2017 Platinum Night Sports Collectibles Auction, which will be open for internet bidding from late January until closing Feb. 25-26.

The hammered horsehide derives from the only known comprehensive collection of home run baseballs hit by every Major League player who has hit at least 500 home runs.

“I don’t believe that so many examples have ever appeared in a single auction,” said Chris Ivy, director of Heritage Sports Collectibles. “We’ve got home run balls from Jimmie Foxx, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Reggie Jackson, Ernie Banks – the list goes on and on.”

The collection will be the first major offering of home run baseballs by Heritage since Babe Ruth’s 702nd commanded $191,200 in the August 2014 Platinum Night auction.

• 1935 Jimmie Foxx Signed Home Run Baseball No. 33 / No. 299 Career (est. $15,000+): The ball, representing Foxx’ 33rd of the 1935 season and 299th of his illustrious career, was one of the last he’d hit as a member of the Philadelphia Athletics.

• Willie Mays Signed Home Run Baseball – No. 50 Baseball of 1965 season / No. 503 career (est. $10,000): While any Mays home run baseball carries enormous collecting intrigue, one placed in such close proximity to the 500th of his career and 50th of the season only add to the demand.

• Reggie Jackson Career Home Run Baseball – No. 10 of 1985 season / No. 513 career (est. $10,000+): “This is the ball I hit for my 513th career home run. I hit the home run in the first at-bat in the second inning, a two-run blast. This home run placed me 10th on the all-time home run list at the time, June 20, 1985, passing Ernie Banks and Eddie Mathews,” Jackson wrote in a hand-written letter of provenance.