The Yankees' Aaron Boone celebrates his game-winning home run off...

The Yankees' Aaron Boone celebrates his game-winning home run off Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield during the 11th inning of Game 7 of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium on Oct. 16, 2003. Credit: AP/Bill Kostroun

PITTSBURGH — In one month, Aaron Boone will celebrate the 20-year anniversary of his historic home run in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS that sent the Yankees to the World Series.

That epic game started on Oct. 16 and ended at 12:14 a.m. on Oct. 17.

Given that the Yankees are very, very unlikely to be playing on either date this season, Boone can take a moment to wistfully look at the ball he hit deep into the night and into the leftfield stands at old Yankee Stadium on Boston knuckleballer Tim Wakefield's first pitch of the bottom of the 11th inning.

No, wait, he can’t. Boone doesn’t have that ball as a memento of his biggest baseball moment. It was caught by a fan from Manhattan and is on loan at the Yankees Museum at Yankee Stadium.

At least Boone can grab the bat he used to etch his name into Yankees lore and feel the wood against his fingers again.

No, wait, he can’t. It’s at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown.

What does Boone have to commemorate that home run?

“My cleats. My batting gloves. The helmet,” the Yankees manager said this past week.

And the memories, of course. But Boone’s tale is not an unusual one. Ballplayers and ex-ballplayers don’t always end up with the top items from their brightest moments.  

And what you assume is a players’ favorite piece of memorabilia sometimes is incorrect.

Boone, for example, has plenty of items from his playing career. Are they proudly displayed in his home?

“Not really,” he said. “We have a workout room downstairs. I have my All-Star Game jerseys, Reds jerseys, Yankee jersey, [Cleveland] jersey, and that’s framed. I have a couple of trunks and bags that I'll go through at some point. Look through whatever else I’ve got in there that I want to display or not or whatever.”

Boone does keep the bat with which he hit his first home run (“off Kerry Wood,” he is proud to point out) in his Yankee Stadium office.  

But Boone’s most prized sports memorabilia collection isn’t anything related to his baseball career, or baseball at all.

It’s his collection of college football helmets.

“That's what you see when you come to my house,” Boone said. “They're mounted on the wall. I love football helmets. Barry Sanders, Oklahoma State, Herschel Walker, Georgia Bulldogs, all the way to like modern. There's no rhyme or reason. Most of them don't have signatures. I’ve got a bunch of mini helmets. I went through a mini helmet phase for like a few months where I was getting a bunch of them.”

Similarly, you probably already know Aaron Judge doesn’t own the ball he hit for his AL-record 62nd home run in Arlington, Texas, last Oct. 4.  

It was caught by a fan in the leftfield stands who sold it last December for $1.5 million.

“As much as I feel like it’s mine since I hit it, it’s not really mine,” Judge said this past week. “I hit it and it goes to whoever catches it. I think that's what's so special about this game — every time a fan comes to a game, you can be a part of history, to be a part of a special moment. I got a special moment just getting a chance to be a part of history. I got the bat, got the memory with some of my teammates. Some fans out there got a ball and a special moment, too. They can have all that. I got my memorabilia, even though some of it’s probably in my head. That's good enough for me.”

As he said, Judge has the 62nd-homer bat. So that must be his No. 1 piece of memorabilia, right?

Wrong.

“I think number one is probably my first All-Star Game jersey,” Judge said. “I’ve literally got the whole jersey framed up. Pants, shoes, jersey top, the bat I used in the [Home Run] Derby.”

The Yankees' Aaron Judge smiles as he competes during the...

The Yankees' Aaron Judge smiles as he competes during the MLB Home Run Derby in Miami on July 10, 2017. Credit: AP/Lynne Sladky

Judge’s first All-Star Game appearance came in his AL Rookie of the Year season in 2017. He won the Home Run Derby.

“For me, you dream of playing the big leagues, to get an opportunity with a team and hopefully being an All-Star,” he said. “You just never envision how that's going to be or if it's ever going to happen and just kind of hope. It was a pretty surreal moment for me because that first year you never know how many you're going to get. That could have been the one, the only one I ever get, so I wanted to cherish it.”

Yankees ace Gerrit Cole probably will add a new item to his trophy case when he wins this season’s American League Cy Young Award.

But when Cole was asked what his favorite piece of current memorabilia is, he paused for about 30 seconds before naming three. In reverse order.

“It’s close,” he said. “I’ve got three of them. OK — love the 300-strikeout ball.”

Cole struck out 326 batters in 2019. No. 300, on Sept. 18, was “Shin-Soo Choo, strikeout No. 10, changeup down and away, 2-2 count,” Cole said.

“I love my major-league debut bat: two-RBIs base hit, first at-bat,” Cole said. That took place on June 11, 2013.

“But my favorite one,” he said, “was we did ‘Players’ Day.’ “

(Cole means “Players’ Weekend,” which was an event MLB ran from 2017-19 in which players got to show off their personalities with colorful nicknames and special equipment. Cole’s moniker on the back of his jersey, for example, was “Cole Train.” Anyway, let’s let him tell it. The date was Aug. 26, 2017.)

Gerrit Cole of the Pirates rounds the bases after a...

Gerrit Cole of the Pirates rounds the bases after a solo home run in the sixth inning of a game against the Reds at Great American Ball Park on Aug. 26, 2017, in Cincinnati. Credit: Getty Images/Joe Robbins

“I had a bat that was an American flag,” he said, “and I had a solo home run and I pitched seven shutout innings and we won the game one to zero, and I got a sacrifice bunt down with the bat. I think I'm partial to the sticks because the pitchers can't hit anymore, right? I'll have some special balls as we keep going, but I won't get any more special ones with a bat, that's for sure.”

And where are all of Cole’s precious artifacts displayed? At the moment, exactly nowhere.

“I don’t even know where all of it is,” he said, “because we just packed up. I’m finishing my house in California this offseason.”

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