ARLINGTON, Texas — No, Rangers fans, you're still not dreaming.
And now one of you will have it in writing.
Items from Texas Rangers radio play-by-play voice Eric Nadel, including the handwritten script of his World Series-winning call, sold at auction for $13,500 on Sunday night.
Proceeds from the auction, which was held by North Texas-based Heritage Auctions, are going toward the Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas.
Heritage packaged the script with Nadel's broadcasting headset he's used for the last ten years.
Nadel, who spent most of the regular season off-air to address symptoms of depression, told WFAA earlier this month he holds dear mental health causes.
"You don’t just get cured of depression,” Nadel said in a statement. “You’re constantly working to improve your mental health or maintain your mental health and continuing to get therapy and do what you need to do. When you’re someone prone to depression, it’s more likely to return. I’ve learned that the hard way, you need to work harder to ensure you’re in a good place and stay in a good place.”
Heritage Auctions opened bidding on the collection earlier this month. The auction closed at 10 p.m. on Sunday night at $13,500. The final sale was $16,200, which included a 20% buyer's premium.
Nadel wrote the script for his call of the season's final out on hotel stationery before World Series Game 5 in Arizona. The paper is creased from storage in Nadel's wallet.
The play-by-play voice also wrote a script during the 2011 World Series. He threw away that note.
Appraisers struggled to price the items from Nadel's title-clinching call, but settled on a $2,500 estimate.
"Two days into bidding, it's already surpassed that," Heritage Auctions sports department production manager Mike Provenzale told WFAA when the auction got going "It had a lot more value to Rangers fans than we even thought. We're excited about where the money will go."
"I wanted to make sure, not having any idea how much money would get raised, that the money was going to a mental health charity that really needed it," Nadel said in an interview with Heritage Auctions. "(The Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas) always needs money. They need money to run their operation. They need money for their training program. They need money to advertise the fact that they need volunteers to man the crisis lines."
Nadel shared that his wife once staffed a crisis intervention phone line.
"It's a great feeling when you get to sell something and know that the money isn't just making somebody happy, it's going to be life-changing for a group of people," Provenzale said.