Jose Bautista's bat flip jersey sells for big bucks

The jersey Jose Bautista was wearing when he hit the celebrated bat flip home run to help win the American League Division Series has sold for an eye-popping $27,606.01 US, an amount one well known collector says may be far more than its actual value.

"That's buying into the hysteria of the moment," said Glen Pye, president of Glory Days Collectibles. "We sell into the hysteria. We don't buy into it."

Price of hype

It certainly was quite the moment. In fact, it was the culmination of a series of moments in what may have been the most bizarre inning in nearly 150 years of Major League Baseball.

Just about every baseball fan knows the story now.  It was the seventh inning of Game 5 of the ALDS. Toronto catcher Russell Martin's return throw back to the pitcher caromed off of the outstretched bat of Texas batter Shin-Soo Choo, who was standing in the batter's box. 

The home umpire called time and ruled it a dead ball, but Rougned Odor ran home from third base.  After the umpires convened, they allowed the run to score, putting Texas up by a score of 3-2.  

Spectators pelted the field — and fans in the first level — with beer and debris. The Blue Jays filed a formal protest.  
Then in the bottom half of the inning, after Texas made three straight errors and Toronto had tied the game, Bautista pounded a home run into the left field stands, flipped his bat, and launched a thousand memes.

Game barely over

Not long after the game ended, with the Jays still celebrating their win, Bautista's champagne-soaked No. 19 jersey was posted on MLB auction.

"I got emailed that night," said Pye, who briefly considered bidding but then watched as the price climbed quickly to more than $15,000.  "It went on about an hour after the game, I think."

Pye, who has been in the sports memorabilia business for nearly 40 years and says he has one of the largest private collections in the country, says even at that price, Bautista's jersey is overvalued.

How much is it worth?

"There are three values," said Pye. "There's the value now in the hysteria. There's another value if they win the World Series. And then the last value is what's it worth five years from now. To me, I think the shirt right now should probably be about $4,000 or $5,000.

"If we win the World Series, it probably keeps that value. If we don't, it drops. About five or six years from now, if we don't win the World Series, it's maybe a $2,500 US shirt."

The winning bid was 10 times that amount, bought by someone whose name has not been made public.

"There was a last-ditch bidding war in the final minutes that boosted the price from about $18,000 to its final price," said Anthony Partipilo, Toronto Blue Jays' vice president of marketing and merchandising.

One of the parties involved in the back and forth bidding as the auction closed was from Toronto, said Partipilo. But that was not the winning bid.  It's not known yet if the winner is Canadian.

There is, however, another factor at play that may have helped boost the final bid.

Money goes to good cause

"The auction site is run by Jays Shop, which is the club's own online shopping site.  The auctions are an offshoot of that." said Partiplio.

"A hundred per cent of the proceeds of this auction will go to the Jose Bautista charity, the Bautista Family Education fund."

Bautista's charity helps provide access to higher education for athletes in need.

Although the winning bidder will not get a charity tax receipt.

With the Blue Jays down 3-2 to the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS, and the prospective long-term value of Bautista's jersey in question, at least the new owner has the comfort of knowing the money went to a good cause.