THE BALL Fetches At Least $40,701

(From The Hartford Courant -- By Mark Spencer)

For more than 50 years, BILL MOORE has believed -- deeply believed -- that he had BOBBY THOMSON's THE SHOT HEARD "ROUND THE WORLD" BASEBALL from THE 1951 NATIONAL LEAGUE PENNANT GAME.

For years he has told anyone who was remotely interested about it, sometimes to the exacerbation of his wife, GAIL.

But on Friday night, BILL AND GAIL MOORE watched the bids on Lelands.com, a LONG ISLAND AUCTION HOUSE, slowly climb on their treasured ball. By 9:45 pm, someone else believed enough to pony up $33,637. And by midnight, the price for the yellowed, scuffed-up ball had climbed to $40,701.

Moore's story about the ball is at once completely believable and highly improbable.

It starts two days after THOMSON hit a bottom-of-the-ninth, three-run homer off RALPH BRANCA to clinch THE NATIONAL LEAGUE PENNANT for THE NEW YORK GIANTS over the BROOKLYN DODGERS on October 3rd, 1951.

Moore's father, HAROLD, found his son playing stickball with friends in their QUEENS neighborhood and handed him a ball. It was a gift, his father said, from a co-worker who caught it at the game. The man had no children, so he gave it to HAROLD MOORE because his son loved baseball.

LELANDS last year offered $1 million for the long-missing ball, which had become THE HOLY GRAIL OF BASEBALL MEMORABILIA. About 100 people produced a ball, but only three were worthy of serious consideration, LELANDS President MIKE HEFFNER said.

Moore's was the most likely candidate and, although the auction house could not definitively say it was THE BALL -- or pay the $1 million -- they said it was from the game and COULD be THE BALL.

There were many years when Moore hardly ever thought about his ball. He got married in 1964, moved to SOUTH WINDSOR, CONNECTICUT a couple of years later, raised three children and worked at CONNECTICUT BANK AND TRUST COMPANY, eventually becoming a vice president.

But he started pulling it out from its hiding place more often and showing it around, often getting skeptical responses from those he sought to impress.

As the auction, which started earlier this month, progressed, Gail said she wanted $1 million -- $1 million or give the ball back. That became impossible the second someone bid the $5,000 minimum on June 7th.

The ball didn't get much action early and the price sat at about $10,000 Friday morning. But by 8 pm -- an hour before the scheduled end of the auction -- 15 bids had pushed the price to $20,886.

Another bid 15 minutes later pushed it to $22,974, where it sat for more than an hour.

Moore, frustrated by his slow computer, said he would miss having the ball around. Then again, he said, anyone who would pay $22,000 for a baseball was nuts.

The auction ends bidding only when there has been no activity for 10 minutes, and a flurry of bids pushed the price to $33,637 by 9:45 pm.

That was encouraging, but what Moore said he really wanted was for someone to be able to authenticate his ball so it would become, in the eyes of all, THE BALL. Then, he said, getting $10,000 would satisfy him.

"I think that would have made me happier," he said, still waiting for the bidding to end Friday night. "That all these years later, this guy has been saying it is, and it is."