DALLAS, TX.- It has been only days since Heritage Sports called its shot with a record-shattering $62-million auction deemed (by an Australian newspaper, no less!) as “nothing less than historically extraordinary.” One might think that after hitting that shot heard ’round the world, this would be a moment to rest on laurels. Yet it’s anything but: Heritage’s October 4-6 Fall Sports Catalog Auction, now open for bidding, is remarkable in its own right — a nearly 3,500-lot event spanning 140 years, covering every sport and offering every kind of collectible imaginable, from coveted card collections to Hall of Famers’ photo-matched jerseys to Super Bowl championship jewelry.

As Chris Ivy, Heritage’s Director of Sports, says: “Heritage certainly takes great pride in having set numerous records over the summer, led by Babe Ruth’s $24-million ‘Called Shot’ jersey. But it’s just as important that collectors know we’ll always offer something for every collector at every level, and the Fall Sports Catalog Auction offers everyone the opportunity to pursue their passions.”

Chief among this event’s prized pieces is a complete set of 1968 Topps baseball cards that ranks among the world’s finest: This 598-card collection currently sits at No. 2 on Professional Sports Authenticator’s set registry, as 517 of its cards are graded Gem Mint 10 with its remaining 81 cards pulling marvelous Mint 9s. PSA hails the ’68 Topps set as “home to one of the most popular cards in hobby history, the Nolan Ryan rookie card,” which is here in a Mint 9. As PSA notes, “Several members of baseball’s 500 Home Run Club can be found in this set,” among them Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Harmon Killebrew and Frank Robinson — all Gem Mint 10s in this awesome assemblage.

There’s a Gem Mint 10 Roberto Clemente in there, too, keeping company in this auction with his 1960 game-worn Pittsburgh Pirates jersey photo-matched to the 1960 season during which the right fielder made his first All-Star Game and the Bucs won their third World Series (over Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and their New York Yankees). As fortune would have it, this sleeveless gem has been photo-matched to a game at Wrigley Field on Aug. 25, 1960, when Clemente singled home the Pirates’ sole run in a 2-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs. Fun fact: In 1940, the Cubs became the first MLB team to wear sleeveless jerseys. Seventeen years later, the Pirates became only the second.

That jersey pairs well with another photo-matched Clemente gem: a game-used bat spanning the 1968-1970 seasons, during which the Pirates legend and humanitarian averaged .328. This heavy slab of knobless Adirondack 129X — measuring 36 inches, weighing 38.6 ounces — bears the scars of heavy use, as well as Clemente’s name and the No. 21 written in marker. A Big Stick that belonged to a great man.

There are other big bats in this auction, among them the black birch swung by Shohei Ohtani during the 2022 season. Photo-matching places this 31.8-ounce ASICS model M4S in Ohtani’s hands during (at least) several days in June 2022, including a June 25 tussle with the Seattle Mariners during which he hit the 16th homer of the season and a June 28 game with the Chicago White Sox that saw him destroy homer No. 17 of the year into Angel Stadium’s center field. The timing for this bat couldn’t be better as Ohtani chases baseball’s first 50-50 season.

With football season underway, and the Chicago Bears media darlings thanks to their star turn on HBO’s Hard Knocks, there’s also no better moment for this offering: Dick Butkus’ game-worn Bears jersey photo-matched to the 1970 season, when he was named, for the second time, the NFL Defensive Player of the Year and Sports Illustrated put him on the cover as “The Most Feared Man in the Game.”

What’s truly exceptional about this jersey is its provenance and place in history. Former Chicago Sting and Bulls equipment manager Willy Steinmiller obtained this jersey in 1971 from George Halas’ daughter, Virginia McCaskey. One year earlier — on Aug. 20, 1970, to be exact, thanks to photo-matching — Butkus wore that jersey during a photo shoot used for Butkus’ 1972 Topps card. It is truly a majestic memory from The Maestro of Mayhem.

Earlier Butkus cards might be found in the unopened cello and wax packs of 1970 and ’71 Topps offerings in this auction. However, one of the sealed centerpieces of this auction is the wax box of 1961 Fleer basketball cards, whose 24 packs could contain the rookie cards of Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. Not far behind is one of the Holy Grails of basketball wax: a wax box of 1986 Fleer basketball cards, in which one might find what PSA calls “the most recognizable basketball card and the most important modern card from any sport in the entire hobby,” Michael Jordan’s official rookie card.

Mickey Mantle’s 1952 Topps card, forever a favorite, appears several times in this auction, with the highest graded example, a PSA Near Mint-Mint 8 (OC), among the 407 cards that make up the PSA-graded complete set of cards that redefined the hobby. Another coveted (nearly) complete set in this auction is the 1968 Topps baseball collection, with every one of its 607 cards not only PSA-graded but also autographed by the likes of Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Tom Seaver, Frank Robinson and Nolan Ryan. (The only missing card belongs to Clemente.)

Here, too, are four set breaks from the finest collections on the PSA registry: 1966 Topps baseball (No. 1 Current and All-Time Finest), 1975 Topps baseball (also at No. 1!), 1959 Topps football (another chart-topper) and 1958 Topps football (which sits at No. 2 Current Finest on the PSA registry). Each set is being offered in several parts over various auctions.

There are also some of basketball’s top-graded sets, alongside nearly every “Pistol” Pete Maravich card ever printed. And collectors of modern marvels featuring heroes of the hardwood will thrill at the Gem Mint 10 rookie rarity featuring LeBron James: a 2003 Topps Chrome Gold Refractor numbered 30/50. And only weeks after 16 exquisite examples from Upper Deck’s 2003 Exquisite Collection shattered records in Heritage’s Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction, more great ones take their place at center court — including The Greatest of All Time, with Michael Jordan high-flying on this Number Pieces Autographs numbered 12 out of — what else? — 23.