Mystery over World Series ball

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Mystery over World Series ball

By Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) - The season is over, the debris from the World Series victory parade has been swept up but one last question bedevils the Boston Red Sox...where is the ball?

When Game Four against the Colorado Rockies ended on Sunday night, Boston catcher Jason Varitek gloved the final strike and tucked the ball in his pocket as the team celebrated their series win.

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Varitek told reporters he later handed the ball to closing pitcher Jonathan Papelbon, who hurled the final strike.

But Papelbon, the impish right-hander who won Boston fans over by doing celebratory jigs on the mound, denies any knowledge of the ball's whereabouts.

"I don't know what happened to it," he said. "If I did have it I wouldn't tell anyone that I did."

After the 2004 World Series that ended Boston's 86-year streak without a championship, the Red Sox sued former first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who had since joined the New York Yankees, to claim the ball that ended the final game.

Boston ultimately negotiated a deal in which the ball was displayed in Fenway Park for a year and then lent to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

In the past, baseballs carrying historic significance have sold for huge sums of money.

The ball that St Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire clubbed in 1998 for a then record-breaking 70th home run in a season sold for $3 million.