One day after the historic announcement that the Dodgers had purchased the contract of the man who would quickly become the first African-American player to a major league contract, Jackie Robinson donned the Brooklyn uniform for the first time. Now, the only known surviving ticket stub from that afternoon exhibition game is headed to auction.
Authenticated by PSA and graded EX/MT 6, the stub from the April 11, 1947 game at Ebbets Field will be among the items in Heritage Auctions’ Fall catalog.
Last February, the company sold a PSA 2 stub from Robinson’s first regular season game for a record $480,000. The buyer was Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio.
The pre-sale estimate for the exhibition stub is $30,000.
The Dodgers-Yankees game on April 11 was the first of a three-game series that led up to that Opening Day game in which Robinson officially broke the modern era baseball color barrier. A crowd of 14,282 turned out to see the Dodgers’ first appearance of 1947.
While Robinson went without a hit in five at-bats in the first exhibition game, he would drive in three runs. He also handled all 15 chances at first base.
“It could be argued that this ticket represents the very first time that baseball truly lived up to its billing as “our national pastime’,” Heritage writes in its catalog description.
The auction is currently scheduled to open October 27 with lots closing over a three night period Nov.17-19.
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