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Eric
12-13-2005, 12:34 PM
DiMaggio Uniform, `Shoeless' Joe's Bat Fail to Sell at Auction Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- A bat used by ``Shoeless'' Joe Jackson and a rookie uniform worn by New York Yankees Hall of Fame outfielder Joe DiMaggio failed to sell at a weekend auction by Sotheby's Holdings Inc.
Bids on both items were short of the minimum price required for sale, Sotheby's spokeswoman Kristin Gelder said in a telephone interview. She declined to disclose how many bids were offered or what the prices were.
Among the items sold at the New York auction was a plaster cast of the original Heisman Trophy from 1935, which went for $228,000. The cast was used as the model for the bronze statue awarded each year to the top U.S. college football player.
The only known game-used Jackson bat in existence, ``Black Betsy'' had sold for $577,000 at a 2001 auction. Jackson acquired the hickory bat from a friend who made it in 1908 and used it through his Major League Baseball career from 1911-20.
Jackson and seven Chicago White Sox teammates were banned from baseball for life for allegedly taking part in a plot to fix the 1919 World Series, a case that has become known as the ``Black Sox'' scandal. Jackson hit .375 in the World Series, which Chicago lost to Cincinnati, and maintained his innocence until his death in 1951.
The pinstriped jersey and pants worn by DiMaggio during the 1936 season has red chain stitching in the collar that reads ``Joe DiMaggio 9.'' DiMaggio, who hit in a record 56 consecutive games in 1941, used No. 9 in his rookie season before switching to No. 5 for the rest of his career.
Gelder said Jackson's bat and DiMaggio's uniform would be offered for sale privately.
In a separate weekend sale conducted by Steiner Sports Marketing, a sports collectables company in New Rochelle, New York, a 1955 game-worn, autographed Mickey Mantle jersey sold for $110,000; a Mantle bat for $22,000; and a game-used DiMaggio jersey for $75,000. Other prices included $30,000 for a Babe Ruth jersey and $26,000 for the Yankee Stadium organ played from 1985-2003 by Eddie Layton.

To contact the reporter on this story:Allan Kreda in New York at akreda@bloomberg.net.Last Updated: December 12, 2005 11:37 EST

dasubman1138
12-17-2005, 12:56 AM
They had the DiMaggio jersey in a showcase at the Fort Washington show at the beginning of December. They estimated the value of it to be $600,000. It had great use on it. There was a huge rip at the knee of his pants, that was sewn back up. No way someone was going to spend $600 g's for it.