SCP Auctions announced Tuesday that Ozzie Smith’s 13 Gold Glove Awards and dozens of other pieces from the Hall of Famer’s baseball career will be part of its upcoming November catalog auction.
The collection features more than 100 pieces, many of which are Smith’s awards and trophies that he collected during his Hall of Fame career. The National League Gold Glove Awards span from 1980-1992, but equally popular will be 11 of his All-Star Game rings, as well as St. Louis Cardinals World Series rings from 2006 and 2011 (see photo gallery below).
Smith, 57, is selling “as part of his estate and family planning” according to the auction house. The auction begins November 14 and closes December 1.
“Ozzie Smith was one of the most entertaining and charismatic figures ever to play Major League Baseball,” Dan Imler, SCP Auctions managing director, said in the company’s news release. “The items in this collection represent the honors bestowed on him for his many contributions to the success of the St. Louis Cardinals.”
Smith won the National League Gold Glove Award at shortstop every year from 1980 through 1992. He’s also selling his 1989 Lou Gehrig Award plaque, the1995 Roberto Clemente Award trophy, an inscribed Rawlings fielder’s glove worn in his final game and Cardinals National League championship rings from 1985 and 2004.
Smith, elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 2002, recently signed autographs at the All-American Sports Collectors Show in suburban St. Louis and is now ready to share his most valuable pieces with collectors. It’s not known if the Cardinals, who are building a new Hall of Fame, might be bidding on some of the items.
He isn’t the first retired sports figure to sell items at auction rather than leave them behind for family and friends. Don Larsen is currently selling his 1956 World Series perfect game uniform in the same auction in which hundreds of Bob Knight items are on the block. Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver sold off his rings and memorabilia through Hunt Auctions last year.
Memorabilia from former 1970s North Carolina State and NBA star David Thompson is also set to sell alongside the Smith auction items in the SCP catalog.
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[…] remainder of the auction concludes Saturday night/Sunday morning with items from the Ozzie Smith collection, a Mickey Mantle warm-up jacket, Babe Ruth sweater and T210 Old Mill baseball card of Joe Jackson […]