If Joe DeMatteo hadn’t needed to pay for a golf club membership in 2002, it’s possible no tickets from the June 5, 1985, game between the Braves and Cubs at Wrigley Field would have survived.
But because DeMatteo needed that membership, he agreed to sell his collection of 20,000 tickets to Lenny Steren for $10,000 at a card show in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.
Steren was then in his fourth year of business as a collectible ticket seller and was building his inventory. DeMatteo told him there were tons of Chicago Cubs and White Sox tickets that came from ushers and season ticket holders.
For decades, there was nothing special about that June 5, 1985, game at Wrigley. Ryne Sandberg, Gary Matthews, Bob Dernier and Rick Sutcliffe all were hurt, and the Braves were bottom dwellers of the NL East.
After Steren picked up those tickets, they sat for 18 years. Until Sean Quinn, in May 2020, asked Steren — who had listed Cubs tickets from the 1980s on eBay — if he had any tickets from that game. Steren had 12 and sold them to Quinn.
So, how did a game between the Braves (20-29) and Cubs (29-19), in which nothing historical happened, become a highly coveted ticket?
Look it up, and you’ll find the answer: It’s "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off."
No one really knew the answer until 2011.
That’s when Larry Granillo of Baseball Prospectus did the legwork to determine which actual major-league game was featured in the footage from the movie on the day Ferris and his friend, Cameron Frye, visited Wrigley instead of attending high school.
In his research, Granillo dissected the footage and noticed the Cubs were playing the Braves, and Cubs closer Lee Smith was pitching.
Ferris caught a foul ball hit off the bat of Claudell Washington, which, according to Granillo’s research, narrowed the broadcast down to the 11th inning of the game on June 5, 1985.
After reading Granillo’s story, Quinn was inspired to collect (and sell) tickets to the game. After acquiring two more randomly, he sent five to Smith to get signed. That batch was initially lost in the mail, but all eventually came back.
Quinn got a ticket signed by Sandberg and sent one for Matthew Broderick to sign. Quinn says the ticket sent to the actor was never returned.
Quinn kept four for himself and sold the other nine, including one to this author for $1,000.
His cumulative profit on the deals? More than $6,000.
There’s a bit of Hollywood in the story, though. Nothing else happened in that game June 5, 1985.
The famous parade scene was shot Sept. 21 and Sept. 28. The first was the real Von Steuben Day Parade in Chicago. The second was needed to get better shots for the film and required 5,000 extras.
The Ferris crowd scene from the Cubs game was actually shot Sept. 24 of that year against the Montreal Expos.
Like June 5, it was an inconsequential game. Unlike June 5, it almost made history as the greatest comeback in major-league history.
The Expos were up 15-2 heading into the sixth inning. They went on to win 17-15.
Both teams were so bad that fewer than 7,000 fans showed up to the game that day.
That game, also collectible, has managed to have had tickets saved for collectors. How did that happen?
Cllct has learned that a man whose family ticket brokerage closed around 2011 sold roughly 10 unused full tickets to that game. Those, like the June game, found themselves into the hands of collectors at similar prices.
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.