GUEST: They both came from the major league
Yankee club, and back in about '57, '58, '59, Kearney had a minor league Yankee ball club,
it was a rookie league, and what the Yankees would do, they'd send down their professional
uniforms to the minor league players so the minor league players would wear them. The reason that there's a K on Whitey's jersey
is that they took the "NY" off, and of course the K stands for Kearney because that's where
the team was located, in Kearney, Nebraska. APPRAISER: Kearney, Nebraska. Now, how'd you get them? GUEST: I was clubhouse boy for the rookie
Yankee team when I was about 15 years old. I come from a baseball family. My father was a professional baseball player,
and my father is in the Nebraska Baseball Hall of Fame. My mother of course was a baseball widow,
so to speak. APPRAISER: (laughing) GUEST: Baseball has been our life. And so I got the job as being a clubhouse
boy. I polished shoes, washed the liners. And after the league ended three years later,
the uniforms were just left, and honestly, I didn't really know... didn't think much
about these uniforms until years later. APPRAISER: So what we have here, what you
brought in were two major league jerseys, New York Yankee jerseys featuring E. Ford--
better known as Whitey-- Ed Ford, number 16. And over here, we have Yogi Berra, whose real
name was Lawrence. GUEST: That’s right. APPRAISER: You know, Larry Berra. So I'm not really sure whether that was just
sort of a misstitching of an L. These are major league uniforms. This was a regular practice in the minor leagues,
because remember, they weren't the multimillion-dollar organizations that they are today. They had to… save money when they could. So what they would do is send the uniforms
down to the minor leagues and recycle them. So I think we're going to take Whitey first,
and here's Whitey Ford, here's his uniform. This is very common for the time, stitching,
and there's no reason for them to take it out. But as you said, they took the "NY" out of
here and they put a K on it for Kearney. That makes sense. APPRAISER: Now, when you flip this around,
this was Whitey Ford's number, 16. Whitey Ford was one of the great New York
Yankees. Here's a guy who won six world championships,
he was a ten-time All Star, and he was the greatest pitcher in baseball in 1961. He won the Cy Young Award for the entire league,
and then he was the MVP in the 1961 series. He was the anchor in the 1950s and '60s, and
his uniforms are very hard to find. I also look at the condition here. You've got a little bit of staining here,
and it was worn and it was altered. So then we've got Yogi. Now, Yogi, for many, is considered as much
of a Yankee as Mickey Mantle, and he was the true anchor of the Yankees during his career. Here's a guy who won ten world championships
a three-time MVP, and really was the cornerstone. And think about that, winning MVP three times
when you're on the same team as Mickey Mantle. Now, the other thing we look at is that this
is from 1951, and '51 was an MVP year. And we have the number eight here. My guess is they probably didn't use this
uniform because they never altered it, which was bad for the person in Kearney,
but really good for you. GUEST: Yeah. Alright. APPRAISER: The only things that I can see,
you've got a little tear here, you've got some minor discoloration. But these are very rare jerseys, and they're
very sought after by collectors, and they would fight over them at auction. You don't want to sell, so I'm going to give
you an insurance appraisal, okay? GUEST: Okay. APPRAISER: Retail replacement, that's the
top of the market. Did you do any research in terms of what these
might be worth or what you — GUEST: Not at all. APPRAISER: -- think the value is, do you have
any idea? GUEST: Not at all. I've seen on the internet maybe a Yogi Berra
shirt offered, and I… I think it was probably something like $3,000
something. APPRAISER: $3,000, okay. Well, I would write the check for that right
now, let me tell you that, because we're looking at Whitey alone, a Whitey -- Whitey Ford 1955
jersey, a home jersey, even altered, I would put an insurance value of $30,000 on it. GUEST: Oh my. APPRAISER: That’s 3-0. GUEST: Oh my. APPRAISER: Now, you know what Yogi would say
here: "It ain't over till it's over." And now we get Yogi's jersey. This is an exceptional jersey. Rarely do better jerseys come up at auction. There's only been a handful, and there hasn't
been one that I've been able to find that's been sold at auction from an MVP year. There have been other years that have been
sold and there have been milestones, such as the one from the perfect game that Don
Larsen threw. GUEST: Mm-hmm. APPRAISER: But in the era of good, better,
best, this is close to the top. I would place an insurance value of $100,000
on this jersey. GUEST: Oh my, my, my! Uh… I wouldn't know... I really don't know what to say about that. That's – that’s amazing, that's amazing. I knew they were going to be somewhat valuable,
but I didn't realize… they were going to be that valuable, I… you really have shocked
me, honestly.
