11. Hank Aaron 755th Home Run Baseball ($650,000 or $1 million today)
By the time Babe Ruth was swinging his bat through victorious games during his last season with New York Yankees, Hank Aaron was born. He might not have grown up watching the Yankees legend, but he followed Ruth’s footsteps on his own story with Milwaukee baseball team.
More than forty years ago, as Milwaukee hosted a game against California, Aaron hit his 755th home run. That was the last of his career and remained as MLB record until it was broken ten years ago.
A groundskeeper named Richard Arndt recovered the ball days after the game. He insisted on giving the ball to Aaron himself, but the team declined and fired Arndt instead. Ouch. So, Arndt decided to auction it after having it signed by Aaron at a collector’s show.
Arndt sold the ball at an auction in 1999. It was a Westport Asset Management business owner, Andrew Knuth, who bought it for $650,000 (or around $1 million today). Aaron himself called Knuth to talk about the ball. The old man was also invited to Aaron’s 65th birthday along with President Clinton. I say that is $1 million well spent.
