Treasures from the life and career of Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays will be sold at Hunt Auctions this fall, highlighted by his championship ring, MVP awards and Presidential Medal of Freedom.
All proceeds will go to education, training and health services for youth via the Say Hey! Foundation.
Mays, who left an indelible mark on the game of baseball and American history writ large over his illustrious career, died at age 93 last June.
Hunt Auctions, which has long led the industry as the top auction house for player collections, previously handling the estates and collections from greats including Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, was chosen by Mays to sell his collection.
According to Say Hey! Foundation chair and friend of Mays, Jeff Bleich, Mays’ one instruction to Hunt Auctions founder David Hunt was “make this the best auction ever to help those kids.”
"For all of his extraordinary achievements as a baseball player, Willie Mays wanted his enduring legacy to be helping children," Bleich said in a statement. "He preserved his most treasured awards so that one day he could pay it forward. He wanted to share these items with his fans so that together they could raise as much as possible to support other kids starting out in life the way he had."
Among those items Mays preserved that will now find new homes are his 1954 Giants World Series ring (est. $500,00-$1,000,000), both of his MVP Awards (est. $250,000-$500,000 each) and his Presidential Medal of Freedom, which he was awarded in 2015 (est. $50,000-$100,000).
Nearly all of the items in the auction have never before been sold publicly, with a handful of exceptions, which Mays re-acquired form the public market.
“We are deeply humbled and grateful to Willie Mays for having been selected to represent this important offering of his personal collection,” David Hunt said in a statement. “Willie has ensured his generosity will continue long into the future with the wonderful work that his Say Hey! Foundation has accomplished with the proceeds of this auction going to help further that good work.
"This auction will undoubtedly stand the test of time as one of the most important player collections ever to be publicly offered and may well become yet another 'greatest all-around' event befitting of the iconic legacy of the Say Hey Kid.”
The live auction will be held Sept. 27 at the King Street Warehouse event space near Oracle Park in San Francisco.
Following the auction, an online sale of additional items from the collection will be held Sept. 28. The collection will be displayed publicly for the first time at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago on July 30 to Aug. 3.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible content.