This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 12/31/2005.
Many players in history of baseball have hit the home run that has sculpted them into the pantheon of the game's heroes. Pirate Bill Mazerowski in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. Dodger Bobby Thomson winning the 1951 pennant. Red Sox Carlton Fisk's homer in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. Then there is Yankee Jim Leyritz's blast in Game 4 of the 1996 World Series, an eruption that more than any other helped to usher in the latest Yankees dynasty. Down two games to none and trailing by as much as 6-0, Leyritz steps up to the plate in the eighth inning and hits a three run homer off of pitcher Mark Wohlers to tie the game. The Yankees went on to win in extra innings and win the next three games, bringing home the World Series trophy and beginning their story as the next in a line of great Yankee teams. As happens in baseball, Leyritz was traded to the Angels during the off-season, even though he was the longest tenured Yankee (5 years, 126 days) at the time. After winning another World Series in 1998, the Yankees brought back Leyritz in July of 1999. Returning to the World Series, the Yankees again defeated the Braves, this time in a four game sweep. On October 27, 1999, in Game 4 with the Yankees leading 3-1, Jim Leyritz again stepped up to the plate in the eighth inning. He walloped the ball over the fence for the last home run of the twentieth century, and an inning later the Yanks were again Champions. This is the actual baseball that Jim Leyritz hit in the eighth inning of Game 4 of the 1999 World Series, the "last home run of the century." It is a Rawlings 1999 Official World Series (Selig) baseball, showing great use and soiling. More than any other item, it can be said with certainty that an item of this distinction really does only come along once every 100 years. Accompanied by a Leyritz family letter, giving this ball impeccable provenance. It was returned to Leyritz by a grounds crew member.