April 15 is arguably the most special date on the baseball calendar.
Every player in Major League Baseball will wear No. 42 on Monday as the game celebrates the 77th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier.
For collectors, a ticket to Robinson's debut game ranks as one of the top items in the hobby. In fact, the ticket is easily the most valuable in sports history, with three sales topping $230,000 for a ticket to the Brooklyn Dodgers' season opener against the Boston Braves on April 15, 1947.
PSA has graded 11 tickets from that day at Ebbets Field. The tickets have a facsimile autograph of Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers general manager who dared to call up Robinson from the Montreal Royals and signed him to become the first Black player in major-league history.
In recent years, the ticket has sold for $230,000, $300,000 and $480,000. The $480,000 sale, in February 2022, was graded a 2 by PSA. Only one is graded higher.
The buyer was revealed to be Milwaukee Brewers chairman Mark Attanasio.
"When the pandemic hit, like many other Americans, you're at home a lot and started thinking about getting back into collecting because it was always passionate for me," Attanasio told cllct.
His son Mike, who collected basketball cards growing up, noticed an opportunity in tickets and showed his father the sale for Robinson's debut ticket at Heritage Auctions, which also offered the only full ticket to Michael Jordan's NBA debut.
Attanasio, at one point, had to decide which ticket he wanted to bid on, but ultimately decided on Robinson.
As the prices climbed to a point where it became the highest-priced ticket sold at auction, Attanasio said he had made up his mind that he had to have the piece of history.
"I had no idea the prices were going to get to where they got," Attanasio said. "But I'm competitive by nature."
Today, Attanasio is happy with his purchase, which he calls the most important professional debut of any in history.
"It's really not that different from a painting," Attanasio said. "And it's something that it's easier to share."
Attanasio grew up loving the Yankees, living in the Bronx a few subway stops from Yankee Stadium. He bought his baseball cards at the corner store and somehow his parents never threw out his cards from the 1960s.
He recalls his first memory as a Yankees fan was in 1964 after he had just turned 7.
"They lost the World Series," Attanasio said. "I literally walked around the block crying."
The next time the Bronx Bombers were in the World Series was 1977. Attanasio was now 20 and studying at Brown University. When Chris Chambliss hit the famous ninth-inning home run to get the Yankees into the Fall Classic, Attanasio partied.
"I went out and maybe had a few beers after that and flunked my Latin midterm," he said. "Absolutely true. I had to drop the class."
Attanasio, who is in his 20th year as the Brewers chairman, said he wants to share his ticket with the world, by either loaning it to the Hall of Fame or the Jackie Robinson Museum in New York City.
Said Attanasio: "It's something that should be shared because it's so special."
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.