This should come as no surprise, but Steve Harshman, the fan who caught the last home run ball ever hit at Yankee Stadium, has decided to cash in. The ball will be up for sale along with a bunch of other Yankee memorabilia by the auction house Guernsey's later this month. From the Jackson Hole Star-Tribune:
"We talked about it as a family and we said we can keep it locked up in a safe deposit box and when I die the kids can fight over it, or maybe it can go to a good collector with a massive Yankees collection, and we can take the money and do some good with it," Harshman said.
Harshman wants to pay off a few debts, donate money to his church and charity and help pay for his children's college educations.
He's absolutely right. The ball is expected to fetch at least $200,000 -- catching it is like finding a winning lottery ticket on the ground. I'm sure some traditionalists out there will criticize Harshman for acting on his capitalistic impulses, but he's not doing anything that every other non-millionaire wouldn't do (especially when you consider he'd still owe truckloads of extra income tax even if he held onto the ball).
If you have a few hundred grand stuck in your couch cushions and you want to own the most expensive leather sphere Jose Molina will ever hit, you better act fast: the auction takes place this coming Saturday.
