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NEW YORK, Nov 10, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Baseball legend Joe DiMaggio's first major league uniform from 1936 is coming out of a closet to be auctioned in New York next month.
The pinstriped jersey and pants the 21-year-old "Yankee Clipper" wore are expected to fetch at least $600,000 at the Sotheby's auction on Dec. 10, CNN said.
That was the only year DiMaggio wore No. 9, and the same year he helped the Yankees to the first of four World Series championships. In later years, he wore No. 5.
The uniform has been in a closet of Charles "Smoke" Mason, now 89, who was a Yankee farm league pitcher in the 1930s. Yankee farm leaguers inherited the uniforms of the big league players from the previous year, and Mason got DiMaggio's.
The auction will also include 349 other rare sports memorabilia pieces, including the original plaster model sculpture of the Heisman Trophy and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson's favorite "Black Betsy" bat.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2005 by United Press International
