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FOR NEARLY A quarter century, one of the most famous home run balls in baseball history sat on a shelf inside a case in Neil Dunleavy’s bedroom closet gathering dust. Every so often he would retrieve it and gaze with admiration: the gold lettering, the round black smudge where the bat struck it and the signature that had faded to the point that it was imperceptible to the naked eye, save for one clue: “#2.”

Dunleavy grew up on the outskirts of New York City, but he was raised at Yankee Stadium. His father, John, worked there as a vendor for 57 years. All three of John’s sons did the same, including Neil, who on Oct. 31, 2001, hopped in his car and drove the five hours from Georgetown University, where he was a sophomore, to the Bronx.

College had cut into the number of games Dunleavy could work, but he was not going to miss Game 4 of the 2001 World Series, forthcoming organic chemistry test be damned. Less than two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the New York Yankees were trying to win their fourth consecutive World Series, and even if it meant selling $10 programs, Dunleavy simply wanted to be inside the stadium, to soak in the mystique and aura of the place and the moment.

As the clock neared midnight on Nov. 1, Derek Jeter stepped to the plate. Arizona Diamondbacks closer Byung-Hyun Kim was laboring. The Diamondbacks had won two of the first three games and were primed to take a commanding 3-1 series lead until Tino Martinez ambushed Kim for a ninth-inning home run that sent the game into extra innings. With two outs in the 10th, Jeter dug himself an 0-2 hole. He fought — ball, foul, foul, ball, ball, foul — before Kim’s 61st pitch of the game caught too much of the outside corner.

Jeter lofted the ball to the opposite field. It kept carrying and snuck over the fence just to the left of the 314-foot marker under the right-field foul pole, where Dunleavy happened to be standing. As a man to his right flipped over the railing and those to his left jumped with joy, Dunleavy pounced on the ball, securing it with his right arm amid the chaos.

The ball is a time machine to the heyday of the Yankees, baseball’s last great dynasty, and even more than that a relic of the career of The Captain. For all the indelible moments in his career — the Jeffrey Maier home run, the dive into the stands, the 3,000th-hit home run, the flip — the ball that gave Jeter the “Mr. November” nickname is perhaps the most iconic, a fact Dunleavy gladly shares with his three children.

“If someone mentions it,” Dunleavy said, “they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s the ball Daddy cares so much about.'”

Never has Dunleavy spoken publicly about the ball and how he came into its possession. In recent months, though, he decided to sell it, and with the auction ending June 14, he spoke with ESPN about that magical night — and how even if he’ll no longer have the physical memento of it, he’ll forever own something even more valuable.

“I’m selling the ball,” Dunleavy said. “I’m not selling the story.”


WHEN HE ARRIVED at Yankee Stadium on Halloween night, Dunleavy figured he would spend his evening at a merchandise stand with his father and brothers, selling hats and pennants and their best-selling item, shirseys with Jeter’s No. 2 on the back. The Yankees needed someone to peddle programs that night, though, and because he was the youngest, Dunleavy drew the short straw.

Hawking programs wasn’t the worst assignment. They cost $10, which meant Dunleavy wouldn’t need to fumble with change or prepare an item like hot dog vendors. Programs were a high-volume business. He got to meet cool people — Dunleavy said he gave programs to Adam Sandler and John Travolta gratis — and hand hundreds of people keepsakes of what he hoped would be a memorable night.

But by the 10th inning, Dunleavy was gassed. He had walked miles around the stadium lugging reams of programs. He knew Jeter was coming up to bat and asked a nearby security guard if he could park himself in the front of the right-field stands and count his money — just in case the game were to end there.

“Wouldn’t it be awesome if he hit a home run right to us now?” Dunleavy asked the security guard.

Dunleavy knew how Jeter operated. At 27, Jeter already had cemented his legacy with four World Series wins. His inside-out swing had won them plenty of games, including Game 1 of the 1996 American League Championship Series, when 12-year-old fan Jeffrey Maier pulled a ball over the right-field fence for a tying home run in the days before replay review. The Yankees went on to win their first World Series in nearly two decades.

“I’m in the right-field corner, and I know Yankees history, obviously,” Dunleavy said. “I know Jeffrey Maier, and I know why the guard who is standing next to me is there in the first place: to prevent Jeffrey Maier incidents from happening.”

Dunleavy reached into his apron and grabbed hundreds of bills, preparing to organize them, when he heard the crack of the bat. As Arizona right fielder Reggie Sanders tracked the ball, it was fading toward the corner — right at Dunleavy. He played baseball in high school and is certain he would have caught the ball if not for the wads of cash in his hands. It bounced to his left and caromed in front of Dunleavy. He dropped the cash and went for a different type of treasure.

He landed hard on the ball, bruising his ribs. He held it tight as others dove toward him hoping it would squirt free. The man who had gone inverted over the barricade, Jimmy Brunn, said: “It came right to me. My fingers were on it. And he pulled it away. There were about 50 people on top of us.”

When the pile receded, Dunleavy stood up, looked around and panicked. Not a single dollar remained on the ground. Maybe the ball would be worth more than the money he had procured that night, but his first thought was: “My dad’s going to kill me.” Then Dunleavy’s eyes gravitated toward a security guard, who, he said, had “a soccer-ball-sized wad of crumpled-up 20s and 10s.” When he counted the money, all $2,120 worth of programs he had sold was accounted for.

Dunleavy celebrated by standing on a security guard’s chair and holding the ball in the air, much to the delight of the fans still high off the win — including Brunn, who handed Dunleavy his business card and told him he wanted to buy the ball.

“The New York kid in me,” Dunleavy said, “realized, ‘OK, I just told 5,000 people I’ve got a very famous ball already. I better get the hell outta here.'”

On the walk back to his father’s stand, Dunleavy started thinking about what he wanted to do with the ball. He could sell it to Brunn or the highest bidder. He could keep it. Neither seemed right. Jeter had provided so many incredible moments for Yankees fans. This was Dunleavy’s opportunity to repay him.

“We all wanted to be Jeter,” Dunleavy said. “So I’m thinking, he hit it, I’m going to give it to him. And hopefully he’ll appreciate it.”

He returned to Yankee Stadium early the next day, ball in hand, and went to right field, where he posed for a photo with the ball. “I thought I was giving the ball away forever, that I’d never see it again,” Dunleavy said. He met with Joe Lee, a batboy he knew, and asked him to bring the ball to Jeter. He was hopeful that Jeter would emerge from the clubhouse, shake his hand, maybe even give him a signed ball or bat.

Lee returned without Jeter — and with a ball in his hand. Dunleavy noticed the black smudge. It was the Mr. November ball, only emblazoned with a faint signature, date (“11-1-01”) and the No. 2.

“Had I known I was going to get it back,” Dunleavy said, “I would’ve given him a better pen.”


DUNLEAVY RETURNED TO Georgetown and regaled his friends with the tale of the Mr. November ball. It became a go-to story at parties. His future wife, Annemarie, heard about the ball within the first 30 minutes of meeting Dunleavy.

The ball stayed at his parents’ house as he finished undergrad and remained there during his time in medical school. When Dunleavy moved into his own place during his residency in New York City, it joined him. It went to Chicago when work took him there and eventually back to Connecticut, where he settled and today works as an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in knees and shoulders.

Dunleavy, now 43, still loves the Yankees and baseball. It taught him how to do math, provided hours of entertainment pouring through Beckett Baseball Card Monthly, filled his early adulthood with memories of his dad and brothers.

“It just hit me,” Dunleavy said. “Time’s passing. I kind of thought maybe I’d give it to [my children] when I’m old and gray. One day, my wife and I are at home, looking at this ball. Literally the case is collecting dust in the closet. We’ve not, like, featured this prominently in our house because the kids could take it and throw it in the mud. I’m like, ‘You know, there’s got to be something better I can do with this.'”

Dunleavy’s daughters are 11 and 9, his son 5, and he acknowledges that “someday, of course, there is that chance that they’re like, ‘What did you do that for? We would’ve wanted it.’ But I don’t think so.” So he connected with the auction house Goldin, which sent it to the authentication company JSA. An analysis using a video spectral comparator clearly showed Jeter’s signature and the date, even after the ink faded, and the ball was deemed authentic. With a week left, the bidding was up to $110,000. Dunleavy said he plans to donate a portion of the proceeds to Jeter’s Turn 2 Foundation.

Even though the Yankees lost the World Series in heartbreaking fashion in 2001, it did nothing to lessen the meaning of that ball and that moment. The time around Sept. 11 was devastating, and baseball offered something around which the country could coalesce. Ten days after the Twin Towers fell, Mike Piazza’s go-ahead home run for the New York Mets brought a sliver of normalcy and hope. The Yankees represented the strength of New York and the game’s meaning to the city and country.

Those feelings, and not the ball itself, are what endure for Dunleavy, who all these years later wants to thank Jeter for his inadvertent influence on Dunleavy’s life.

“Please tell him I told this story to my wife and we are celebrating 17 years of marriage next week,” he said. “That changed my life, you know? And she says it didn’t [convince her to date him], but who the hell knows, right? Maybe it did. Maybe she saw my enthusiasm in telling a story and liked it.

“I owe this moment a lot. I have always been able to make everybody smile when I tell this story. I can tell this story to people who don’t care about baseball, don’t care about sports. No one can take the story away.”

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Sovereignty rallies to win Jim Dandy at Saratoga

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Sovereignty rallies to win Jim Dandy at Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes champion Sovereignty rallied after losing position heading into the final turn to win the $500,000 Jim Dandy by a length at Saratoga on Saturday.

Ridden by Junior Alvarado, Sovereignty ran nine furlongs in 1:49.52 and paid $3 to win as the 1-2 favorite against four rivals, the smallest field of his career.

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said Sovereignty would be pointed toward the $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 23 at the upstate New York track.

Approaching the turn, there were a few tense moments as it appeared Sovereignty was retreating when losing position to the advancing Baeza and deep closers Sandman and Hill Road, leaving Sovereignty in last for a few strides.

Alvarado said he never had a doubt that Sovereignty would come up with his expected run.

“It was everybody else moving and at that time I was just like, ‘Alright let me now kind of start picking it up,'” Alvarado said. “I had 100% confidence. I knew what I had underneath me.”

Baeza, third to Sovereignty in both the Derby and Belmont, finished second. Hill Road was another 9¼ lengths back in third. Mo Plex was fourth and Sandman fifth.

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Briscoe wins Brickyard 400 pole, his 5th of season

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Briscoe wins Brickyard 400 pole, his 5th of season

INDIANAPOLIS — Chase Briscoe became the first driver to win poles at NASCAR’s first three crown jewel races in one season Saturday, taking the Brickyard 400 pole with a fast lap of 183.165 mph.

His late run bumped Bubba Wallace out of the top starting spot.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has won nine career poles, five coming this season including those at the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and now the only race held in Briscoe’s home state. He’ll have a chance to complete a crown jewel sweep at the Southern 500 in late August.

Briscoe has the most pole wins this season, his latest coming on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.5-mile oval. It also came on the same weekend his sister was married in Indiana. Briscoe has never won the Brickyard.

Wallace starts next to Briscoe on the front row after posting a lap of 183.117 mph. Those two also led a pack of five Toyotas to the front of the field — marking the first time the engine manufacturer has swept the top five spots.

Qualifying was held after a brief, rescheduled practice session. Friday’s practice was rained out.

Briscoe’s teammate, Ty Gibbs, has the early edge in the championship round of NASCAR’s first In-Season Challenge. He qualified fifth at 182.445. Ty Dillon starts 26th. The winner will be crowned champion and walk away with $1 million.

Last week’s race winner Denny Hamlin faces a major hurdle in winning his first Brickyard title. He crashed hard during qualifying and will start from the back of the field, 39th, as he tries to become the fifth driver to complete a career sweep of the Cup’s crown jewel races. The 44-year-old Hamlin signed a two-year contract extension with JGR on Friday.

Defending race winner Kyle Larson starts 13th.

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Building the perfect trade deadline for the Mets and Phillies

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Building the perfect trade deadline for the Mets and Phillies

There’s plenty of history in the rivalry between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. It’s about 116 miles from Citi Field to Citizens Bank Park. The two teams been competing for the NL East since 1969. Star players from Tug McGraw to Jerry Koosman to Lenny Dykstra to Pedro Martinez to Zack Wheeler have played for both franchises. Mets fans loathe the Phanatic, and Phillies fans laugh derisively at Mr. Met.

Despite this longevity, the two teams have rarely battled for a division title in the same season. The only years they finished No. 1 and 2 or were battling for a division lead late in the season:

  • 1986: Mets finished 21.5 games ahead

  • 2001: Both finished within six games of the Braves

  • 2006: Mets finished 12 games ahead

  • 2007: Phillies finished one game ahead

  • 2008: Phillies finished three games ahead

  • 2024: Phillies finished six games ahead of Mets and Braves

So it’s a rare treat to see the Mets and Phillies battling for the NL East lead in as New York faces the San Francisco Giants on “Sunday Night Baseball” this week. This season has also been a bit of bumpy ride for both teams, so there is pressure on both front offices to make trade deadline additions in hopes of winning the World Series that has eluded both franchises in recent years despite high payrolls and star-laden rosters. Let’s dig into what both teams need to do before Thursday.

The perfect trade deadline for the Mets

1. Bullpen help

The Mets already acquired hard-throwing lefty Gregory Soto from the Orioles, but David Stearns will likely look for another reliever, given that the Mets’ bullpen has struggled since the beginning of June with a 5.02 ERA. In my grade of the trade, I pointed out the importance for the Mets to add left-handed relief. Think of potential playoff opponents and all the key left-handed batters: Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper on the Phillies; Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy on the Dodgers; Kyle Tucker, Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong on the Cubs.

Soto has held lefties to a .138 average this season, and it does help that the Mets have two lefty starters in David Peterson and Sean Manaea. They also just activated Brooks Raley after he had been out since early 2024. If he is back to his 2022-23 form, when he had a 2.74 ERA and held lefties to a .209 average, maybe the Mets will feel good enough about their southpaw relief.

They could still use another dependable righty reliever. Mets starters were hot early on, but they weren’t going deep into games, and outside of Peterson, the lack of longer outings is a big reason the bullpen ERA has skyrocketed. Carlos Mendoza has overworked his setup guys, including Huascar Brazoban and Reed Garrett. Brazoban has never been much of a strike thrower anyway, and Garrett similarly faded in the second half last season. Adding a high-leverage righty to set up Edwin Diaz makes sense. Candidates there include David Bednar of the Pirates, Ryan Helsley of the Cardinals, Griffin Jax or Jhoan Duran of the Twins, or maybe a longer shot such as Emmanuel Clase or Cade Smith of the Guardians.

2. Think big, as in Eugenio Suarez

Mark Vientos was a huge key to last season’s playoff appearance and trip to the NLCS, hitting .266/.322/.516 with 27 home runs after beginning the season in Triple-A. He hasn’t been able to replicate that performance, though, hitting .224/.279/.354. That has led to a revolving door at third base, with Vientos, Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio starting games there in July. Overall, Mets third basemen ranked 24th in the majors in OPS entering Friday.

Lack of production at third is one reason the Mets’ offense has been mediocre rather than very good — they’re averaging 4.38 runs per game, just below the NL average of 4.43. They could use another premium bat, given the lack of production they’ve received from center field and catcher (not to mention Francisco Lindor‘s slump since the middle of June). Maybe Francisco Alvarez‘s short stint back in Triple-A will get his bat going now that he’s back in the majors, but going after Suarez to hit behind Juan Soto and Pete Alonso would lengthen the lineup.

3. Reacquire Harrison Bader to play CF

Tyrone Taylor is a plus defender in center and has made several incredible catches, but he’s hitting .209/.264/.306 for a lowly OPS+ of 65. Old friend Bader is having a nice season with the Twins, hitting .251/.330/.435. Maybe that’s a little over his head, given that he had a .657 OPS with the Mets last season, but he would still be an offensive upgrade over Taylor without losing anything on defense — and he wouldn’t cost a top-tier prospect. The Mets could still mix in Jeff McNeil against the really tough righties, but adding Suarez and Bader would give this lineup more of a championship feel.

The perfect deadline for the Phillies

1. Acquire Jhoan Duran

Like the Mets, the Phillies already made a move here, signing free agent David Robertson, who had a 3.00 ERA and 99 strikeouts in 72 innings last season with the Rangers. On paper, he should help, but he’s also 40 and will need a few games in the minors to get ready. Even with Robertson, the Phillies could use some more help here. They’ll eventually get Jose Alvarado back from his 60-game PED suspension, but Alvarado is ineligible for the postseason. At least the Mets have an elite closer in Edwin Diaz. Jordan Romano leads the Phillies with eight saves and has a 6.69 ERA. Matt Strahm is solid, but more useful as a lefty setup guy than a closer (think of all those left-handed batters we listed for the Mets, then sub out Juan Soto and Brandon Nimmo for Harper and Schwarber).

And the Phillies’ bullpen has consistently come up short in big games. Think back to last year’s NLDS, when Jeff Hoffman lost twice to the Mets. Or 2023, when Craig Kimbrel lost two games in the NLCS against the Diamondbacks. Or the 2022 World Series, when Yordan Alvarez hit the huge home run off Alvarado in the clinching Game 6.

So, yes, a shutdown closer is a must. Maybe that’s Bednar, maybe Clase if he’s available (although he struggled in last year’s postseason), maybe Helsley. But the guy Dave Dombrowski should go all-in to get: Duran. The window for the Phillies is slowly closing as the core players get older. Duran is under control through 2027, so he’s a fit for now and the immediate future. The trade cost might be painful, but with his 100 mph fastball and splitter, he has the elite stuff you need in October.

2. Add Ryan O’Hearn

The Phillies have received below-average production from both left field (mostly Max Kepler) and center field (Brandon Marsh/Johan Rojas platoon). The center-field market is pretty thin except for Bader or maybe a gamble on Luis Robert Jr. I’d pass on Robert, stick with the Marsh/Rojas platoon and upgrade left field with O’Hearn, who is hitting .281/.375/.452 for the Orioles. He isn’t the perfect fit since, like Kepler, he hits left-handed and struggles against lefties, but he’s a patient hitter with a much better OBP, and he’s passable in the outfield.

3. Acquire Willi Castro

Here’s the bottom line: The Phillies have to admit that some of their long-term position players aren’t getting the job done — such as second baseman Bryson Stott, who has a 77 OPS+. Third baseman Alec Bohm has been better but also has a below-average OPS.

That makes Castro a nice fit. He’s not a star, but he’s an above-average hitter, a switch-hitter who plays all over the field for the Twins, having started games at five different positions. He could play second or third or start in left field against a lefty. Philadelphia could even start him in center instead of Rojas, although that would be a defensive hit. Bottom line: Castro would give the Phillies a lot more versatility — or a significant offensive upgrade over Stott if they start him every day at second.

Note as well: Stott has hit .188 in 33 career postseason games. Bohm has hit .214 with two home runs in 34 postseason games. The Phillies need a different offensive look for October.

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