Baseball Card, McGwire Ball Sold at Auction

NEW YORK--An 85-year-old Honus Wagner baseball card went for $222,500 at auction yesterday, while the ball Mark McGwire hit for his 50th home run earned a whopping $46,000 for the New York Mets fan who caught it last August.

A collection of letters, pictures and other memorabilia of baseball's darkest time--the 1919 "Black Sox Scandal"--was sold by Christie's to various buyers for upwards of $70,000.

The collection belonged to "Shoeless Joe" Jackson, the Chicago White Sox outfielder who was banned from baseball for life, along with seven teammates, for throwing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.

The Honus Wagner card, with a portrait of the all-time great Pittsburgh Pirate shortstop, is one of the rarest of all baseball cards. An identical one was sold by Christie's in September of 1996, for $640,000--a record for any item of sports memorabilia at auction.