Impostor sock auctioned as Schilling's infamous "bloody sock"
Curt Schilling’s bloody sock went up for auction at the Fletcher-Sinclair mansion in New York on Saturday and the right-hander’s foot warmer sold for $92,613 to an anonymous bidder. Here’s the catch (pun intended), the sock auctioned Saturday was the one worn during game 2 of the 2004 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals not the real "bloody sock" from the infamous game 6 of the ALCS against the Yankees - it would have garnered a higher price tag.
Schilling pitched game 6 of the ALCS against the Yankees
after undergoing surgery on his right ankle - leaving behind the most famous
blood stained sock in Red Sox history. Legend
has it Curt threw that bloody mess away right after the game somewhere in
Yankee Stadium (hopefully cursing that place from ever winning a World Series
title again). I’m sure Schilling is kicking himself right now for throwing away
a priceless (until it’s auctioned) piece of Red Sox history.
The reason for auctioning the 2nd bloody sock is due in part
to the collapse of Schilling’s Rhode Island based video game company, 38
Studios. The company went bankrupt in 2012 and now Schilling is in the middle
of various lawsuits – money is a now necessity.
When the sock became available for bidding many thought it would go for more than $100,000, so
when the winning bid, 92,613, was announced it left some disappointed and dumbfounded.
"It's a one of a kind item, so it's really tough to gauge what kind of interest you're going to get," Chris Ivy, director of Sports Auctions for Heritage Auctions said. "Sometimes you catch lightning in a bottle where a piece will take off like the Buckner ball. This particular time, it's the first time we sold a sock with blood on it so it's very hard to gauge what kind of final number it's going to end up."
Any piece of memorabilia from the Red Sox 2004 World Series title will pull in decent money, but I'm sure Schilling is pissed he threw away the one sock that could fetch him the big money - the true "bloody sock."
There can only be one...
Note: Every time I wrote the word "bloody" in this post I read the sentence with an English accent. Just thought I'd share that fun fact, I guess.
Follow Scott Levesque on Twitter at @levyskew.