{"id":16322,"date":"2019-01-07T17:29:42","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T22:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/?p=16322"},"modified":"2025-09-16T10:57:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T14:57:53","slug":"historic-toronto-blue-jays-ball-heads-to-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2019\/01\/07\/historic-toronto-blue-jays-ball-heads-to-auction\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Toronto Blue Jays Ball Heads to Auction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bautijo02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Jose Bautista<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s infamous bat-flip home run ball from Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS has hit the auction block. Bautista hit the home run in the seventh inning, turning the game with a single swing of the bat from a 3-3 tie to a formidable 6-3 lead. That would be the final score and propel the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/toronto-blue-jays\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> to the ALCS where they would lose to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/kansas-city-royals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kansas City Royals<\/a>, who would go on to become the World Series champions. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bautista\u2019s bat from the infamous home run is located in a display case in the Blue Jay\u2019s clubhouse.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Historic Toronto Blue Jays Ball Heads to Auction<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-UdsVO7HaJg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ball is lot #561 in Leland Auction\u2019s Winter Classic Auction. The ball\u2019s opening bid is $3,500 but in-house appraisers expect the ball could bring as much as $8,000 by auction end on February 1.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This bat-flip, in particular, set off a vigorous debate across the baseball world. Bat-flips are seen in many conservative baseball circles as flashy and unsportsmanlike while others see it as a way to bring personality and fun into the game. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ball from the historic comeback moment set into motion a larger rivalry between Toronto and the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/texas-rangers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Texas Rangers<\/a>. This resulted in an altercation the next season as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/odorro01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Rougned Odor<\/strong><\/a> landed a solid punch to Bautista\u2019s chin. Bautista would later get his revenge in a different altercation, hitting Odor with an equally powerful punch to the head.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bautista spent the largest chunk of his impressive career with Toronto as a member of the team from 2008-2017. Bautista landed in Toronto as the result of a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates for <strong>Robinzon Diaz<\/strong>, to fill in for an injured <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rolensc01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Scott Rolen<\/strong><\/a>. During his Toronto tenure, he was a six-time all-star, three-time silver slugger award winner, and twice lad the MLB in home runs. \u00a0He bounced around the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/atlanta-braves\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta Braves<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/new-york-mets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Mets<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/philadelphia-phillies\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> in 2018 and entered free agency this off-season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Link to auction: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/auction.lelands.com\/bids\/bidplace?itemid=90702\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/auction.lelands.com\/bids\/bidplace?itemid=90702<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"9pcm3wtuRyZinewNuzqixw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/492830780\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'9pcm3wtuRyZinewNuzqixw',sig:'yUQl6Fl7gevHywp9F5jhBcTx6iIcio-PeEObqeFruRs=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'492830780',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An incredible historic Toronto Blue Jays memorabilia piece, Jose Bautista\u2019s notorious bat-flip home run ball from the 2015 ALDS is up for auction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2889,"featured_media":16339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,29142,1071,35],"tags":[2312,68,2450,69,2311,36],"class_list":["post-16322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bluejays","category-fan-culture","category-mlb","category-news","tag-auction","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-memorabilia","tag-mlb","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2889"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107205,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16322\/revisions\/107205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}