It’s been 30 years now. A long time, but not long enough to where “baseball memorabilia” was a foreign phrase. There was a lot of collecting going on then. In fact, the hobby was just starting to go mainstream with more shows and more collectors popping up. The next year, everything exploded when Fleer and Donruss broke the Topps monopoly.
So why did the last out baseball from the 1980 World Series not become a more cherished relic? No one seems to know where it is and that could be because of the man who was entrusted with it.
The late Tug McGraw wasn’t much on memorabilia.
He was too busy having fun. Later, his possessions became scattered, the ball perhaps among them. Or did he and his son play with it?
No one seems to know for sure. To collectors and wealthy Phillies fans, it would be worth a small fortune. 1980 was, after all, the first time the franchise had won it all.
The Philadelphia Inquirer tracks the baseballs during the final moments of that Series and tells us why auction houses would love to see someone find it.
