This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/4/2017
Before joining Major League Baseball in 1969, the San Diego Padres were a minor league club playing in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). The team played in that league 1936 to 1968 and during the course of that time played its home games in three different ballparks: Lane Field (1936 to ’57), Westgate Park (1958 to ’67) and San Diego Stadium (1968). This lot features the actual game-used home plate from the Padres’ final game ever played at Lane Field on Sept. 8, 1957.
As the story goes, according to the San Diego Hall of Champions: “Hundreds of souvenir seekers rushed the field after the final out, easily overwhelming the undermanned security staff. Home plate was dug up with clandestine tools, and no less than eight burly ruffians engaged in a ferocious tug-of-war for the prized item. I the midst of the violent confrontation, a gorgeous young woman, who happened to be a former beauty queen, stepped up and quietly said ‘I’ll take that.’ The thunderstruck men stepped back in astonishment and the young woman simply walked off with her prize. Upon her death in the 1990’s, her son donated the home plate to The San Diego Hall of Champions.”
Includes Letter of Provenance from the San Diego Hall of Champions.