A program from the 1951 World Series between the New York Yankees and New York Giants, signed by Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays, sold for more than $3,600 on Wednesday at RR Auctions.
It soared past its $400 estimate and fetched more than seven times the price paid in April for another 1951 World Series program signed by 33 players, including DiMaggio and Mays, but missing Mantle.
The lofty final price is a result of the indelible tie between those three men and the 1951 World Series.
In the fifth inning of Game 2, the three future Hall of Famers combined to produce a moment that lives in baseball infamy.
As the Giants’ Mays lofted a fly ball to right-center field, Mantle gave chase from right field. Having been told prior to the game by manager Casey Stengel to take any ball he could reach in order to cover for DiMaggio’s declining athleticism, the rookie was in a full-on sprint. But DiMaggio, playing in his final World Series and none too happy to allow a kid from Oklahoma to take his spot in center field, waved him off, catching the ball with ease.
Mantle caught his cleat on a drainpipe in the process of stopping short, collapsing to the ground and injuring his right knee. It would become one of the most impactful injuries in sports.
“Mantle’s injury probably robbed him of the hope to become the game’s greatest statistical performer,” wrote the New York Times.
"Hitting the ball was easy,” Mantle would later say. “Running around the bases was the tough part."
No other example of a program signed by the trio on the front cover, with no other signers, appears in public auction records. The most expensive sale of a program prior to Wednesday belonged to a Joe DiMaggio single-signed copy, which fetched $2,016 in 2023.
Another program, which includes 20 signatures, including Mantle, DiMaggio and Mays, sold for $1,050 in 2020. That copy features period signatures attributed to the era, unlike the RR example, which features sharpie autographs indicative of post-career signing, such as at an autograph show.
Tickets from Game 2 have sold for as much as $2,700.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.