An iconic, artistic black-and-white photograph of Roger Maris taken during the 1962 World Series is one of 1,773 photographs that are being offered for sale during RMY Auctions’ Mega Collectors Auction. The bidding began on March 31 and will end at 8 p.m. ET on April 15.
The photographs run the gamut of subjects, covering sports, politics, entertainment, military, social events and landmark moments in 20th century history.
The image of Maris was taken at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, Oct. 7, 1962, by New York Daily News photographer John Duprey. Maris and his New York Yankees teammates were around the batting cage before Game 3 of the 1962 World Series. The Yankees and San Francisco Giants had split the first two games out west, and Game 3 marked the Giants’ first return to New York since the team bolted for the west coast after the 1957 season.
Duprey caught Maris pointing the barrel of his bat toward the camera as he waited his turn in the batting cage. The Yankees’ right fielder, who had set the single-season record of 61 home runs in 1961, “slumped” to 33 in 1962 (which led the Yankees) but still drove in 100 runs. In Game 3 of the ’62 Series, Maris accounted for all three runs, driving in two with a single to right field and scoring moments later on a fielder’s choice. It proved to be the margin of victory as the Yankees beat the Giants 3-2 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Maris had only three other hits in the World Series, batting just .174. But he also homered and doubled and drove in five runs, and Giants pitchers still respected his power by walking him five times.
Duprey is no stranger to dramatic or artistic photographs in a career that spanned several decades. In 1970 he snapped a shot of a construction worker wielding a sledgehammer atop the World Trade Center. His dramatic shot of John F. Kennedy’s flag-draped coffin at the Capitol in 1963 was a stark reminder of the country’s national tragedy, and he captured the early enthusiasm for Fidel Castro when he visited Columbia University in New York. But Duprey also snapped many slice-of-life photographs of New Yorker in various stages of their everyday lives.
In 1973 he won best feature photo in the New York Press Photographers Association’s annual competition.
The photographs by RMY Auctions include other sports figures, too. Gordie Howe, Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Mickey Mantle. Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, John Elway, Dan Marino, Wilt Chamberlain, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Jack Johnson, Magic Johnson, Wayne Gretzky and the 1969 New York Mets all are represented in the auction lots.
Entertainment figures in the auction include Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Sofia Loren, Brigette Bardot, John Wayne, Lucille Ball and Bob Hope.
There are plenty of politicians, like Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Opening bids for every photo in the auction start at $15.
