Addison Barger’s World Series pinch-hit grand slam ball to go up for auction

Toronto Blue Jays' Addison Barger rounds the bases after hitting a grand slam against the Los Angeles Dodgers during sixth inning Game 1 World Series playoff MLB baseball action in Toronto on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025.

Toronto Blue Jays fans now have the chance to bid on a historic part of the team’s 2025 World Series run.

Sotheby’s is auctioning off the ball from Addison Barger’s pinch-hit grand slam in Game 1 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

That pinch-hit grand slam—the first ever in World Series history—became one of the defining moments of the Jays’ unforgettable postseason run in October.

“The Blue Jays entered the series as clear underdogs—a talented but untested group facing the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, a club loaded with star power, postseason experience, and the expectation of another title," the Sotheby’s listing reads.

“Toronto had not appeared in a World Series since 1993, and while their young roster had surged late in the season, few outside the city expected them to stand toe-to-toe with baseball’s modern juggernaut.”

“But on a cold October night at Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays delivered an emphatic reminder that the World Series rarely follows the script.”

• Blue Jays’ Addison Barger hits first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history

Barger’s big moment was just one part of Toronto’s eventual 11-4 victory in Game 1.

He entered the game batting for Davis Schneider, expecting to face Dodgers right-hander Emmet Sheehan.

Barger said he had watched a few simulated pitches to prepare before stepping up to the plate.

However, L.A. switched pitchers as he came up, hoping to trip up the left-handed Barger with their own lefty pitcher in Anthony Banda.

Barger then drilled a 2-1 slider 413 feet to right-centre—his third home run of the postseason.

“I know it’s a tough at-bat, left on left, but the goal was just put the barrel on the ball, hopefully hit it in the air and get the run in,” Barger said after the game.

“When Barger stepped in as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded, the moment didn’t seem destined for the history books,” Sotheby’s wrote. “But with a 2-1 count, he unloaded on a slider and launched it deep into the right-field seats... The roar was instant, overwhelming.”

The moment was made even more memorable when Davis Schneider revealed Barger had crashed on his pull-out couch the night before.

Sotheby’s says the auctioned off baseball will be accompanied by “a letter of provenance by the consignor,” who caught the ball at the game.

That person is Austin Jenkins, who says in the letter that he was sitting 10 rows above the right-field wall when he made the catch, noting that the ball hasn’t left his possession since.

At the time of publication, seven bids have been made on the listing, with the current winning bid sitting at $564 CAD ($400 USD).

Barger’s pinch-hit grand slam ball is one of 55 items that are part of Sotheby’s Winter Sports Classic catalogue, running from Nov. 25 until Dec. 11.

The auction house describes the catalogue as “a collection of objects that define how modern sports history is written—not in statistics alone, but in moments when the course of a franchise, a league, or the culture of the game changes forever."

Choosing the ball as part of that catalogue, they recount Barger’s grand slam as “a bolt of noise and chaos in a building starved for October glory, (that) has already secured its place as one of the signature moments of a World Series many consider among the finest ever played.”

With files from The Associated Press