The ball dropped in center field by Aaron Judge to kick off the New York Yankees' collapse in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series against the Dodgers is now being auctioned off via Major League Baseball's auction site. Bidding on the ball runs throughThursday night, with the price of the game-used ball nearing $20,000 as of Thursday afternoon.
At the top of the fifth inning with the Yankees up 5-0 and trying to claw back from a 3-1 deficit in the series, Judge moved under a routine fly ball from Tommy Edman in center field that should have been an easy out. But Judge dropped the ball to allow the Los Angeles Dodgers to get two runners on with no outs.
It was the first error committed by Judge the entire season, and it served as the spark that started the Yankees' inexplicable fifth-inning meltdown: The Dodgers proceeded to even the score at 5-5 in an inning that featured more than just Judge's mistake, and eventually won the game 7-6 to clinch the title.
The ball dropped by Judge is the latest game ball associated with the Dodgers' 2024 World Series run to go up for auction. The ball Shohei Ohtani hit for the 50th home run of his 50-50 season sold for $4.4 million, while the ball that Freddie Freeman hit for the first walk-off grand slam in postseason history is currently up for auction through Saturday.