Joel Platt, right, and his son, Jim, pose for a picture in “the vault,” a secure location containing an immense trove of memorabilia.
Seventy-four years ago, Joel Platt says, Babe Ruth came to him in a dream. “Don’t give up,” Ruth told Platt, then 4 years old and recovering from injuries suffered in a gasoline explosion. “You can be a baseball player or open a museum to sports legends.” Platt turned out to be a decent shortstop and an even better collector. Over decades, some of history’s best athletes and their families gave him mementos—in many instances, before there was a market for such items. Platt also bought from other collectors, eventually amassing more than 1 million pieces, some of which are on display at the Sports Immortals Museum in Boca Raton, Fla. Now 78, he wants to unload the collection. With the accompanying branding and marketing opportunities, it could be worth as much as $250 million, says Michael Heffner, president of auction house Lelands.com. Platt’s goal is to sell to a person or an institution that can do what he didn’t have the space to do: display the entirety of his life’s work. Here, Platt describes a few of his prized possessions and explains how he acquired them.