Lawyers for the Atlanta Braves sent a cease-and-desist letter Friday to Heritage Auctions, the Dallas-based company that is auctioning off a lot said to include the home plate and three bases used the night Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run.
In the letter, obtained by cllct, representatives for the Braves accuse Heritage of either "actively auctioning off items that were obtained by improper or illegal means; or auctioning off knowingly unauthenticated items." The MLB team is asking Heritage to immediately pull the lot for the historic bases, along with lots for Aaron’s jerseys from 1954 and 1974, and Aaron’s hat from 1974. All these items were included in the company's Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction, which runs from Aug. 23-25.
If the Braves' demands are no complied with by end of business Tuesday, the team is threatening legal action.
"The Atlanta Braves remain deeply concerned with Heritage’s lack of diligence and complete failure to authenticate the Disputed Items," the letter said. "We are conducting an investigation into the authenticity of the remaining Disputed Items and into how Heritage and any other party came into possession of them. If any of the Disputed Items are found to have been acquired illegally, they are the rightful property of the Atlanta Braves and should be returned to the Atlanta Braves immediately.
"And if any of the Disputed Items are found to be inauthentic, Heritage’s sale of the fraudulent items would negatively impact the value of the actual items, causing irreparable harm to the Atlanta Braves by potentially diminishing the financial and historic value of the sports memorabilia at issue."
The Braves' letter comes on the heels of a representative from the Baseball Hall of Fame making Heritage aware, in a publicly released statement Thursday, that the museum maintains claim to third base, which is actively being displayed in Cooperstown, New York. The Hall of Fame says it received the base from Aaron himself in 1982.
Heritage executives responded Friday, in a statement provided to cllct, saying they were unaware of the base in the Hall of Fame despite its annual presence in front of hundreds of thousands of museum goers, but they had "done our due diligence and are satisfied that these are the authentic bases based on their source and the provenance."
"We understand and absolutely appreciate the historic nature of these items, and we are now working to address all parties' concerns in an attempt to expeditiously resolve the matter," the statement said.
The auction, which has a current high bid of $52,800 including buyer's premium, is set to close next Friday.
The auction description said a Braves employee, who is not named or referred to by title, "gathered his staff and instructed them to save absolutely everything related to this unprecedented moment in baseball history. They secured the bat, the cap, the jersey, the pants, the shoes and belt and socks. And, in a particularly unexpected and brilliant moment of clarity, he told his crew to pull up all the bases and home plate, too."
Heritage says the Braves employee gifted the bases in 2016 to his son, who consigned it to the auction. The auction house says it has a letter from the consignor, which has not been included in the lot and has not been offered publicly for clarification.
The only additional provenance is the bases have the markings of bases in that era, and the box used to store home plate says "715 Home Run" on the box, and it was written in "vintage red marker."
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectible market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.