A fan kept Tug McGraw’s 1980 World Series jersey in his dresser. Now it’s being auctioned off.
McGraw's white jersey with No. 45 on the back will be auctioned off in July at a live auction during the MLB All Star Village at the Convention Center.
The pass allowed the fan entrance into a party Philadelphia thought it would never see: a World Series celebration in the Phillies clubhouse. And he left the champagne-soaked room with a one-of-a-kind souvenir: the jersey of the pitcher who threw the clinching pitch.
Tug McGraw simply handed the 19-year-old fan his jersey that night in 1980, shortly after he struck out Kansas City’s Willie Wilson to clinch the Phillies’ elusive crown. The fan kept the jersey in his dresser drawer, removing it only to show friends or bring to his children’s schools for show-and-tell.
It will soon find a new home as the white jersey with No. 45 on the back will be auctioned off in July at a live auction during the MLB All Star Village at the Convention Center.
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“That was the first moment of its type in the city’s history,” said Dave Hunt, the president of Hunt Auctions. “There were championships before that but not like that one. I think the Flyers would be right before it but I feel like that moment was a different type of celebration and what it did for the city. And what moment do you think of? You close your eyes and that’s it. That’s the one.”
The fan, who is remaining anonymous, was the son of an acquaintance to Ruly Carpenter, who owned the Phillies in 1980 when they won it all. He suffered a knee injury in 1978 as “a young athlete” and the Carpenters invited him to rehab at Veterans Stadium under the tutelage of Phillies trainer Gus Hoefling.
He spent time around the Phillies and became close with some of the players, allowing him to score a pass to enter the clubhouse after Game 6 of the World Series.
“He goes down into the celebration and obviously, it’s chaotic,” Hunt said. “But it settles down and Tug is one of the people he got acquainted with. He’s like ‘Here. This is for you.’”
The man brought the jersey a few months ago to Hunt Auctions, which is based in Exton and expects the jersey to be worth more than $300,000. The jersey passed the eye test as it had all the stitches and tags to match other game-worn Phillies jerseys from that era.
But they needed to make sure this was the jersey. They used a third-party photo matching company that “definitively” ruled that the jersey was worn by McGraw in Game 6. The company — MeiGray Authentication — studied the alignment of the pinstripes under the left arm of McGraw’s jersey in photos and videos before ruling that images from Game 6 matched the jersey but Game 1 did not.
McGraw’s jersey is still in great condition as it rarely left the fan’s drawer.
“Frankly, thankfully,” Hunt said. “That is one unfortunate part of the world that we’re in. Many times, we’ll be presented with incredible pieces that have since deteriorated because they weren’t taken care of. This was just indiscriminately stored safely in a drawer for all these years. It’s beautiful. The condition is what you want to see. It’s not cleaned. It’s not altered. It’s not changed. But it’s also not abused or damaged.”
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The jersey has been in the fan’s possession for nearly 50 years but Hunt said the fan is not sad to part with something he cherished.
“Having worked with so many different players and their families, it’s a natural course of life that we all go through,” Hunt said. “You decide ‘How do want to make sure these things survive going into the future?’ This wasn’t a case of needing to sell it or anything. It just sort of naturally came to be and here we are.”
There’s never not a good reason to talk baseball with Terry Francona. But with his current team (the Reds) in town, and because two of his former clubs (the Red Sox and Phillies) recently fired their managers, there's no better time to invite the future Hall of Fame manager for a conversation on "Phillies Extra," The Inquirer's baseball podcast. Watch here.
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