Phillies Fans Fight For Baseballs As MLB Memorabilia Prices Top $24 Million

The furor over a disputed baseball in Miami underlined the fact that fans are willing to fight for free souvenirs – especially if they can sell them.

The incident started when Harrison Bader hit a home run into the left-field stands in the fourth inning of the game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park.

Four fans reached for it, with Drew Feltwell emerging with the ball. He quickly gave it to his son Lincoln, who was celebrating his 10th birthday at the game. Then a female fan grabbed his arm and yelled at him, insisting the ball belonged to her.

“We were there to get a home run ball so I thought we accomplished this great thing,” Feltwell said on NBC10 Philadelphia the following day. “Putting it in his glove meant a lot but she was just so adamant and loud, yelling and persistent, that I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore.”

Marlins Goodies

Instead of arguing, he gave the ball to the woman while angry fans nearby watched and videotaped the exchange with their cellphones. As a result, the Marlins presented Lincoln with a goody bag packed with souvenirs and the Phillies gave him a Bader-signed bat presented by the outfielder himself after the game.

While the ball hit at the Phillies-Marlins game hardly had any significance, other baseballs do.

Balls of historic importance – such as Hank Aaron’s 715th home run in 1974 or the one Barry Bonds hit for his record 73rd of the 2001 season – often have dollar-signs attached. And the ball Shohei Ohtani hit for his 50th home run of 2024 (making me the game’s first 50/50 player) sold for $4.3 million in a Goldin’s auction. No other game-used ball has ever earned more.

Factors that raise the value of baseballs and other memorabilia include scarcity and condition, such as the Topps 1952 rookie card of Mickey Mantle, the T206 Honus Wagner from 1909, and the jersey from Babe Ruth’s 1920 season, his first as a member of the New York Yankees.

Record Ruth Jersey

Ruth jerseys and Mantle rookies routinely sell for seven figures. In fact, the Yankees uniform top Ruth wore when he hit his “Called Shot” home run in the 1932 World Series went for $24.12 million.

Something as simple as a cardboard card can be a gold mine in the baseball memorabilia world. A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle sold for $12.6 million, while a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner went for $7.25 million because the player forced the tobacco publisher to halt production.

According to Bill Jacobowitz, a pioneer in the memorabilia business, “Any special ball or signed bat has more value. If it has an inscription on it, like ‘1955 World Champion Dodgers,’ it would have more value than if it just says, ‘Johnny Podres.’”

A former school psychologist who ran the first New Jersey card show, at Montclair State University in 1981, Jacobowitz opened his first card shop in 1975, then moved to his current location in Livingston after moving there in 1988.

“I collected as a kid and have been in business now for more than 50 years,” said Jacobowitz. “When we moved out of Newark, my mother took the cat and left my collection. I’ve never forgiven her.”

His first trade was a disaster; he sold a 1951 Willie Mays Bowman rookie and 1952 Topps Mantle rookie for $15 at a New York show. “Those cards would be worth more than $1,000 today,” he said, “but they paid for my bus ride and lunch for my friend and me at Tad’s Steak House.”

He was a senior at Muehlenberg at the time.

Jacobowitz later started the first baseball card club in New Jersey. “We knew of eight serious collectors then,” he said. “It’s been a great hobby that turned out to be a great business for me.”

MLB Famous Names

The veteran dealer sells signed balls from such Hall of Famers as Mantle and Mike Piazza, both of whom starred in New York, but says he can’t get $50 for one signed by another electee, Charlie Gehringer, because he spent his career in Detroit.

He also says he’s never seen a ball signed by Lou Gehrig, a modest star whose quiet personality was the opposite of the outgoing Ruth. “Ruth signed like crazy,” said Jacobowitz. “He went to hospitals and signed anywhere and any time somebody asked. Try to find some Gehrig signed balls. A signed Gehrig jersey would go into the millions. In my mind, these items are very much more in demand. He was a quiet guy who didn’t make many appearances.”

Finding inexpensive balls signed by active players is also difficult, he added. “Younger guys might make a million dollars a year or more,” said the lifelong New Jersey resident. “They don’t need the money.”

Signed Ohtani balls are an exception, he added. “There’s a huge Asian market now,” Jacobowitz reported. “There’s a lot of money available for that kind of stuff today.”

After the Dodgers and Cubs opened the 2025 season in Tokyo, Ohtani signed a ball that also had the signatures of teammates Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto plus Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga. It was sold for $59,999.99 by Fanatics, which realized a reported $40 million in merchandise and card sales for the two-game series.

Popularity Counts

Prices rise or fall in direct relation to the popularity of the player, Jacobowitz said. “If Aaron Judge hits 74 home runs, that ball is going to be more valuable than the ball Bonds hit for No. 73. Bonds is not the most-liked player in baseball history.”

Rated the No. 1 memorabilia dealer in New Jersey by Google, Skybox sells everything from cards and jerseys to autographed balls. It also donates cards to charity – about half a million per year, according to Jacobowitz.

But he’s wary of fraud in the industry.

“There’s a huge number of fake items out there,” he said. “I tell people to be very careful. Don’t buy at shows and don’t buy through the mail. If you get a certificate, make sure there’s a phone number and address on it. And before you purchase anything, call the number to make sure it’s still in business.”

Jacobowitz takes a dim view of the woman who demanded the baseball in Miami.

“Three per cent of the people in this country are sociopaths,” he said. “I’m not calling her a sociopath but how do act the way she did? How do you take a ball away from a kid? And she’s not the only one who would’ve done that.

“She could have gone to any store and bought exactly the same kind of ball for $15.

“The best part is Harrison Bader met with the kid after the game and gave him a signed bat. Many athletes have a bad reputation. But most of them are really good people.”