CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, owner of a bankrupt video game company, plans to auction off a blood-stained sock he wore in the historic 2004 World Series championship.
The sock, worn by Schilling in Game Two of the first World Series won by the Red Sox in 86 years, is expected to fetch more than $100,000 when it hits the auction block next month, Chris Ivy, director of sports at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, said on Thursday.
Schilling took the mound after having an unorthodox surgical procedure done on his injured right ankle, enabling him to pitch in Game Two of the team's four-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.
The sock had been on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, since 2004, Ivy said.
Online bidding for the sock will open at $25,000 on February 4, followed by a live auction in New York on February 23, he said.
Last year, the state of Rhode Island sued Schilling and the former head of a state economic development agency over a $75 million loan guarantee the agency made to 38 Studios, a failed video game company owned by the retired baseball player.
The quasi-public agency made the loan in 2010 to lure Schilling, who promised to bring 450 jobs to the economically depressed state from neighboring Massachusetts. The deal was brokered by former Rhode Island governor Donald Carcieri.
38 Studios filed for bankruptcy in June, leaving Rhode Island taxpayers responsible for repaying roughly $100 million, including interest, to private investors who had bought bonds the state issued on behalf of the company.
The lawsuit charges some of the defendants committed larceny and permitted the video game company to rely on financial assumptions that were based on "known false assumptions."
(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and David Gregorio)
