Aaron Judge's record home run ball could be sold for more than $4 million to $5 million, attorney says
Yankees' Aaron Judge connects for a solo home run, his 62nd of the season, off as Texas Rangers catcher Sam Huff and umpire Randy Rosenberg look on in the first inning of the second baseball game of a doubleheader in Arlington, Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Credit: AP/Tony Gutierrez
CLEVELAND — The attorney for the fan who caught Aaron Judge’s record 62nd home run says he expects the ball to be sold and to fetch a price in excess of $4 million to $5 million.
“I think we’re going to go ahead and sell it,” Palm Springs, California, attorney Dave Baron told Newsday on Sunday in a telephone interview. “I’ve been taking some private offers and talking to all the auction houses — they’ve been contacting us.”
Asked about a report that the price could be about $4 million to $5 million, Baron said: “I’m hearing these kinds of numbers. We’ve already had an offer for $3 million and I understand another one may be coming in for a bit more than that. Talking to the auction people, they don’t really commit to a number, but they said it just could be significantly higher based on New York, the New York fan base and how crazy it could get at an auction.”
Judge broke the American League single-season home run record on Oct. 4 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
The ball was caught by Rangers fan Cory Youmans, a vice president at a Dallas branch of Fisher Investments. Youmans is married to SI.com's Dallas Cowboys reporter, Bri Amaranthus.
After breaking Roger Maris’ 61-year-old AL home run record set in 1961, Judge was asked about the ball.
“I don’t know where it’s at,” he said. “We’ll see what happens with that. It’d be great to get it back, but that’s a souvenir for a fan. They made a great catch out there and they’ve got every right to it.”
Baron said he has reached out to the Yankees to see if they’d like to display the ball (but not to see if they’d like to purchase it). He said he has not been given an answer.
Baron said he has not been contacted by anyone representing Judge.
“We’re open to pretty much anything,” he said. “My folks that have the ball, they’re a really nice young family and big baseball fans. Whatever the Yankees or Judge would like to do with the ball, they’d be happy to accommodate that.”
Judge, who will be a free agent after the season and could be looking at a new contract in excess of $300 million, probably isn’t thinking about the ball. He and the Yankees faced the Guardians in Cleveland on Sunday night in Game 4 of their AL Division Series, and a loss would end their season.
Baron said his client would welcome an offer from Judge to buy the ball.
“He’s going to get in excess of $300 million, isn’t he?” Baron said. “We would certainly entertain discussions with his people, for sure.”
Baron also said his client would make the ball available to Judge if he wanted to take a photo with it before it’s sold to another party.
“We would make the ball available to him for him to do whatever he wanted to do with it,” Baron said. “If he wanted to have a photo or whatever he wanted to do with it. So that would just be an open offer. We’d get the ball to him. Figure it’d be nice for him to have at least a photo with it, right?”
In 1999, Mark McGwire’s 70th home run baseball fetched $3 million at auction, making it the most money ever paid for a milestone baseball. That record also could fall.
“We’re going to probably wait here until the Yankees are done and then make a decision on what we’re going to do, or maybe the end of the World Series,” Baron said. “We’ll see. There’s no hard-and-fast rule. Just kind of playing it by ear right now.”
Judge has the ball he hit on Sept. 28 in Toronto to tie Maris at 61. It went into the Blue Jays' bullpen and eventually was given to Judge for free.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
