ESPN MLB insider Author of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports”
Aaron Judge‘s record-setting 62nd home run ball is headed to auction later this month, with the attorney for the Texas man who caught it telling ESPN he already turned down a $3 million offer for the prize snagged Oct. 4 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
Cory Youmans, a 35-year-old from Dallas, told ESPN that “after weeks of a lot of deep conversations” with his wife, sports reporter Bri Amaranthus, and his lawyer, Dave Baron, they decided to sell the ball with the Goldin Auctions house.
“It seems fair in the sense it gives anyone that is interested and has the means the opportunity to own it,” Youmans said. “As a fan, I’m curious to see what it’s worth, who buys it and what they do with it.”
Discussions with a Yankees security official on the night Youmans caught the ball were pleasant, he said, but did not lead to a deal to return to Judge the home run that broke the American League record that had held since 1961.
Judge, who is expected to win the AL MVP award Thursday, said the night of the home run: “It’d be great to get it back, but that’s a souvenir for a fan. They made a great catch out there, and they’ve got every right to it.”
The most expensive baseball ever sold at auction was Mark McGwire’s then-record 70th home run in the 1998 season, which went for $3.05 million to comic book artist Todd McFarlane.
“We’ve already had an offer for $3 million,” said Baron, Youmans’ attorney. “Talking to the auction people, they don’t really commit to a number, but they said it just could be significantly higher based on New York, the New York fan base and how crazy it could get at an auction.”
The night Youmans caught the home run indeed was wild. The congratulations from nearby fans. The misinformation about him that circulated almost immediately on social media. Sneaking out of the stadium. And the realization that he was in possession of the sports equivalent of a winning lottery ticket.
It all started when a friend offered a ticket to the game and Youmans agreed to go for one particular reason.
“This game was all about seeing Aaron Judge in person,” Youmans said. “I am still in awe of his ability. As a baseball fan and an American, I’m just so happy Aaron is the face of America’s pastime. It’s his moment, and he’s the right man for it.”
Judge had stalled on 61 home runs going into the Yankees’ 161st game of the season. Leading off in the first inning, he hit the third pitch he saw — an 88 mph slider from Texas Rangers starter Jesus Tinoco — toward the left-field seats. When the ball cleared the infield, Youmans realized it was coming in his direction. He had never caught a baseball at a game. He kept telling himself not to drop it.
“I have this fear of ending up on SportsCenter Not Top 10,” Youmans said, “so my initial feeling was pure relief that I wasn’t the guy that dropped No. 62 or ended up wearing my beer.”
He did neither. His glove extended in front of one on the hand of a Grand Prairie, Texas, man named Todd Smith, and when the ball popped in it, fans patted Youmans on the back, congratulated him and watched security whisk him toward a room where he paced for a few minutes.
Yankees executive director of security Eddie Fastook arrived and said if Youmans wanted to meet Judge and exchange the ball for memorabilia, photographs and tickets, he would be the one to arrange that. Youmans said he preferred not to decide on the spot — “Eddie is great at his job,” he said, “so telling him no was really hard” — and waited for an authenticator to check the ball. The special markings on balls thrown to Judge as he approached Roger Maris’ record confirmed Youmans was holding No. 62, and an authentication sticker affixed to the ball endorsed that.
With the ball verified, Youmans asked if he could leave the stadium. Two security personnel spirited him to a golf cart and snaked through the interior of the stadium so Youmans could avoid any hassle. He stopped to meet Rangers owner Ray Davis and president Neil Leibman before departing through the players’ entrance.
On the drive home, Youmans received a text from Amaranthus asking if he was near their apartment. Someone had shared their address on social media. Rather than stay the night and risk any issues, Youmans and Amaranthus packed their dog in the car and spent a few days at a friend’s house.
The social media speculation alluding to Youmans’ wealth, he said, was spurious. While he does work in financial services, he said, “We are not millionaires, and we enjoy the $3 red blend from Trader Joe’s as much as anything.” He and Amaranthus, he said, have been saving to buy their first house, and Youmans hopes to build a shop for his grandfather, a retired welder who works on classic cars, recently celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary and had been planning to move. Youmans moved in with his grandparents at 13, he said, and his grandfather delayed retirement to send him to private school, following which Youmans became the first college graduate in his family.
After being diagnosed with melanoma earlier this year, Youmans said he and Amaranthus refocused their priorities, vowing to travel the world. “Meeting people from different cultures is a major priority for us at this stage of life,” Youmans said, and selling the ball would allow for such adventures.
Youmans said he wanted to lend the ball to the Yankees to display during the postseason, “but unfortunately it didn’t materialize.” He remained silent publicly, he said, not to distract the Yankees during their playoff run, which ended in an AL Championship Series sweep by the Houston Astros.
Ideally, Youmans said, the ball would wind up with Judge, the Yankees or the National Baseball Hall of Fame, but the conduit will need to run through the auction, which Goldin said on its Instagram page would start Nov. 29.
Some of the money could find its way to Judge’s All Rise Foundation — similar to the large donations of Philip Ozersky, who caught McGwire’s 70th home run and supported multiple charities. Youmans said he contacted the foundation and that its “mission really resonates with me: to inspire children to have hope for their future.
“It’s a full-circle moment for me,” Youmans said, “because 25 years ago, I would have benefited from their help and would love to pay it forward.”
College football is officially moving to a single offseason transfer portal window, the NCAA announced Wednesday.
The Division I Administrative Committee voted to approve a legislative change that eliminates the spring transfer window but did not sign off on establishing Jan. 2-11 as the lone portal window for FBS and FCS players.
In response to feedback from student-athletes, the FBS and FCS oversight committees will discuss modifying the dates and length of the proposed January window. The Administrative Committee will consider those adjustments when it meets in October.
FBS head coaches advocated for a January portal window at the AFCA convention in January, and both oversight committees voted to support changing the transfer windows earlier this month. The reform will bring major changes to the timing and duration of the offseason transfer period in college football.
The initial proposal would require college football players to wait until Jan. 2 — the day after the completion of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals — to enter their names in the NCAA transfer portal database and be contacted by prospective schools. Graduate transfers were previously allowed to enter the portal early but now must also wait until the January window.
Players would have 10 days to enter the portal but are under no deadline to make a commitment to their next school once they enter.
Players on teams still competing in the College Football Playoff in January would have five days after their final postseason game to enter the portal. This season’s CFP semifinals — the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl and the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl — are scheduled for Jan. 8 and 9, respectively.
In previous years, the winter transfer portal window opened in early December on the Monday after bowl game selections. The change is aimed at alleviating some of the stress of the loaded December calendar, during which transfer recruiting, coaching changes, bowl practices, high school signing day, bowl games and the College Football Playoff all were going on simultaneously.
Last year’s winter portal window was Dec. 9-28 with the spring portal window on April 16-25. The total number of FBS scholarship transfers has increased yearly and surpassed 3,200 in 2024-25.
The elimination of the spring transfer period is a move the NCAA has considered in recent years. It was first established as a 15-day window in April 2023 and marked the final deadline for players to transfer and be immediately eligible at their next school. In 2024-25, the spring window was reduced to a 10-day period.
The spring window had become a source of frustration among coaches in recent years. Unexpected post-spring departures are difficult to replace, and the elimination of the one-time transfer rule has given players and agents the leverage to demand more money by threatening to transfer. Coaches have also taken advantage of the spring window to cut underperforming players and bring in additional transfers.
This year, more than 1,100 FBS scholarship players entered the transfer portal in the month of April.
Head coaching changes currently trigger a 30-day window for players who wish to enter the portal and explore a transfer. Football players at UCLA and Virginia Tech are already allowed to transfer early after their head coaches were fired Sunday.
Though many head coaches have expressed support for a January transfer window, Ohio State coach Ryan Day spoke out against it earlier this month, telling reporters it “doesn’t make any sense to me” that coaches must focus on recruiting transfers while their team is still competing for a national championship.
Sellers left the first half of the Gamecocks’ loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday after a hit to the head knocked him to the ground, and coach Shane Beamer said at halftime he wouldn’t return.
Sources told ESPN on Wednesday that Sellers has been in practice, and there’s optimism around his availability for Saturday.
Beamer made clear earlier in the week that there’s a “policy” at South Carolina that players who don’t practice on Tuesday and Wednesday aren’t going to play. Beamer has generally been mum on Sellers’ status this week, pointing to the injury report
Sellers, a redshirt sophomore, is one of the best players in the country and is considered a contender to be the top quarterback selected if he decides to enter the 2026 NFL draft. He accounted for 25 touchdowns last season — 18 passing and seven rushing. He threw for 2,534 yards and ran for an additional 674 in 2024.
Sellers was hit by Vanderbilt linebacker Langston Patterson with less than two minutes left in the second quarter of Saturday’s game. Patterson was ejected for targeting.
Sellers was replaced by sixth-year senior Luke Doty, who was 18-for-27 for 148 yards. He had an interception and didn’t lead the Gamecocks to a touchdown in the 31-7 home loss in Columbia. South Carolina didn’t score in the second half.
Pamela Maldonado is a sports betting analyst for ESPN.
College football Week 4 brings a board full of numbers that look tempting at first glance, but dig a little deeper, and the edges start to reveal themselves.
Some of these matchups hinge on mismatches in the trenches, others on pace and red zone execution and a few are simply about trusting what we already know.
I’ve run through the current stats and the storylines, and three bets made the cut.
I saw this and caught myself saying out loud, “Why?!” Because Tulsa lost 45-10 last year? Different team.
Oklahoma State was up just 17-7 at the half against UT Martin and then got bulldozed the following week by Oregon. This is not just a slow start.
The concerns were there all summer: overhauled coaching staff, heavy reliance on transfers, no proven quarterback and an offensive line without a single returning starter. Those problems don’t get fixed in two games, and so far the results line up. The run game is stuck at 3.2 yards per carry and the passing attack has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns.
Tulsa is not flashy, but it’s functional with a ground game that already has 19 runs of 10 yards or more. And the sneaky part is that Tulsa has the second-best pass rush grade by PFF even with only eight sacks in three games. The Golden Hurricane are winning battles up front even if it hasn’t fully shown in the box score yet. That could show up against the Cowboys, where Zane Flores has been sacked twice in each game.
Oklahoma State should look better at home in a rivalry spot, but the efficiency gap is real. Tulsa has edges in the trenches and enough offense to keep this tight. This is me taking my preseason read, watching it come to life and fading Oklahoma State until it proves me wrong.
Time to ride the Hurricane. I wouldn’t be shocked if they win (+380).
Rutgers has put up flashy passing numbers through three weeks, but I don’t buy that its air attack is truly a tier above what Iowa State showed.
The Cyclones threw it 27 times against Iowa and came away with just 134 yards on 5 yards per attempt. That is the kind of suffocating drag Iowa’s defense creates.
The Hawkeyes are built on a top-10 PFF pass-rush grade, generating enough pressure to collapse pockets, force quarterbacks into short throws and take away explosive plays. That style matches perfectly against a Rutgers offense that has thrived on efficiency and rhythm. Add in Iowa’s red zone defense, where opponents have only five trips all season and three total touchdowns, and it is hard to picture Rutgers lighting up the scoreboard the way they did against Norfolk State or Miami (OH).
And okay, maybe I was wrong. Entering the season I was excited about the potential of the Hawkeyes having a new and improved offense. It is what it is, a heavy ground game, over 44 rushing attempts per contest, chewing up clock and leaning on field position. Typical.
That approach limits possessions, slows pace and makes every touchdown feel like a grind. Rutgers’ run defense has not been great, but Iowa is not suddenly scoring 30 points in a Big Ten road game.
The formula is straightforward. Iowa’s pass rush shrinks Rutgers’ passing game, Iowa’s defense holds inside the 20 and Iowa’s offense drains the clock on the ground. This one feels like a rock fight in a phone booth. Punt intended.
On the surface, you think: Baylor laying less than a field goal at home with that passing game? It sounds tempting.
But this actually sets up perfectly for what the Sun Devils do best, run the ball straight at you.
Arizona State has one of the top rushing offenses in the country, ranked top five by PFF, and it’s not just volume. This group is explosive with 28 runs of 10 or more yards already. Raleek Brown has averaged more than eight yards a carry and Sam Leavitt adds another dimension as a mobile quarterback. When ASU’s ground game gets downhill, defenses have not been able to get them off schedule.
Baylor’s run defense is disastrous, one of the worst front sevens in the nation, ranking 124th in rushing yards allowed and 81st in tackling. Auburn rolled up more than 300 rushing yards against them and even an FCS opponent found lanes. If Baylor’s defense can’t stop first contact or wrap up, Arizona State can steal control and keep Baylor’s passing threat watching from the sideline.
Plus, ASU’s defense stiffens in the red zone, allowing only four touchdowns on nine trips. That means Baylor’s drives could end in field goals, not seven points. Add in that ASU has registered 11 sacks so far this season, while Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson was dropped four times by Auburn, and things are looking more clear. The edge in pressure could make all the difference when the Sun Devils mix run with well-timed blitzes or stunts.
ASU can win this outright, so back the Devils this weekend.