If You Have A Hard-On For Baseball-As-Talisman, The Bill Buckner Ball Is Up For Sale

As if I needed to tell you, today is the 25th anniversary of Darryl Strawberry's second inning, one-out walk against Roger Clemens in game 6 of the 1986 World Series. Oh, you didn't realize that? Maybe you're not that big of a baseball fan after all.

The walk has gone down in history as one of the most famous at-bats in sports history because had the Mets gone down in order that inning, some guy doesn't come to the plate with two outs in the 10th, and some other guy doesn't make an error on his ground ball. I'm not so clear on the details of that play; it was a long time ago.

But maybe you're one of the folks interested in this Bill Buckner character. An entire region of the country wanted him dead for nearly two decades until they realized that curses aren't a real thing (the existence of Dan Shaughnessy's book and Dan Shaughnessy himself notwithstanding). Still, the ball has its place in history, and in the collectors market. In 2000 songwriter and collector Seth Swirsky paid just $64,000 for it, outbidding Charlie Sheen and Keith Olbermann. It was a bargain considering Todd McFarlane had shelled out $3 million on Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball just a year prior.

But time has passed, and Swirsky, a huge Mets fan, might be willing to finally part with his favorite possession. But not for a penny less than one million dollars, which is where the eBay bidding begins. Perhaps Swirsky was hoping that speculators would lose their minds because it's the 25th anniversary, but no one's going to pay $1,000,000 for a ball, any ball. Barry Bonds's 756th home run ball went for $752,000. No ball, other than during the absurd McGwire bubble, has gone for more than 800 grand. And sure enough, there have been no bids on the Buckner ball since the auction went live 10 days ago.

If you have information on the whereabouts of the ball that gave Strawberry his free pass in the 2nd, please do let us know.

The "Buckner Ball" is For Sale [Hall of Very Good] BASEBALL BILL BUCKNER's LEGS 1986 WORLD SERIES MOOKIE WILSON METS RED SOX CURSE [eBay]