When it comes to collectibles, it’s hard to beat owning the bullpen car for your favorite team. But at some point is there too much to pay for such an item? Apparently not for one person.
A New York Mets bullpen car sold for $112,500 at a Sotheby’s auction on Thursday, around four-to-five times what the auction house estimated its worth to be. The car is one of two bullpen cars owned and operated by the team.
Sotheby’s shared some more info about the car:
Used intermittently at Shea Stadium for more than 20 years. Highlights of its use include a memorable appearance at the 1986 World Series versus the Boston Red Sox and then again in 2003 when Mets Captain John Franco drove Mets legend Tug McGraw onto the field as part of the team’s celebration of the legendary 1973 team.
ESPN’s Uniwatch recently interviewed the man who was selling the car. He says he is a diehard Mets fan who bought it off former team co-owner Nelson Doubleday, who used to store it at his auto mechanic’s shop. The previous owner, Jamie Scott, says he repeatedly told his mechanic over the years that he wanted to buy the car. When the owner decided to sell it, Scott swooped in and bought it. Oh, and boy did he make great use of it!
“When I first got it, my kids were very young, and we’d put all the neighborhood kids in it — like, eight or 10 of ’em — and drive up and down the street. All the kids loved it, and they all became Mets fans. We’d also drive it every year in the local Memorial Day parade, and we’d use it for fundraisers, that kind of thing,” Scott says of how he used it.
Now it will be available to the new owner to use in similar ways. I mean, they better make good use of it after dropping six figures on it!
I would have bought it as a birthday gift for my uncle, a diehard Mets fan, but my $100 betting ticket on Hampton to win the NCAA Tournament at 1,000:1 didn’t come through. He’ll have to settle for his chairs from Shea Stadium for now.
And you remember those Yankee Stadium letters Reggie Jackson was selling? He still owns them, because they failed to meet his reserve price at the auction.
