by 
Rudy Giuliani owns four Yankees World Series rings, one from each title won by the MLB team when he was mayor of New York. Today, he and his family are fighting to keep them.
Giuliani currently faces a handful of legal challenges, including a bankruptcy and a defamation case that he lost last year in federal court. In this latest case, Donald Trump’s former lawyer was ordered to pay $148 million to two Georgia election officials who he claimed, without evidence, had helped steal the 2020 presidential election. And the plaintiffs want her rings as part of this payment.
More from Sportico.com
Last month, Giuliani was ordered to return a number of assets for that $148 million. They included his New York apartment, a 1980 Mercedes that belonged to actress Lauren Bacall, a number of watches and some other sports memorabilia. Giuliani and his legal team fought to withhold two items: his Florida apartment and Yankees rings. His son, Andrew, claimed in a court filing in October that the rings were given to him by his father in May 2018, around 12:30 a.m. after the former mayor’s 74th birthday.th birthday party.
The question of ownership of the rings remains unresolved. In federal court this week, Giuliani’s new lawyer asked the judge to further delay his next trial, currently scheduled for Jan. 16, to determine whether his client could keep the apartment and rings. The judge refused. Giuliani has already returned 90% of the required assets, his lawyer said. “I can’t pay my bills,” Giuliani reportedly told the judge.
For many New Yorkers, the rings are a reminder of Giuliani’s close relationship with baseball’s most valuable franchise. He grew up as a Yankees fan in Brooklyn – at a time when the Dodgers were still in town – but that bond became especially tight following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when baseball became a rallying point for the city and its mayor. Giuliani frequently wore Yankees hats and jackets, was a mainstay in championship parades and, during the final weeks of his time at City Hall, helped negotiate deals that led to the new Yankee Stadium. He wore one of his World Series rings during his failed 2008 presidential campaign.
In a court filing earlier this year, Giuliani listed the rings alongside a series of watches and other jewelry that he valued at $30,000 in total. In response, a plaintiffs’ attorney said in a filing that Giuliani assigned “extremely low values to his assets, including Yankee World Series rings,” according to News week. Ken Goldin, founder of Goldin Auctions, said in an email that the four rings combined would likely be worth $200,000 in a collectibles auction. That’s “a significant premium” over what they would get if they were previously owned by a lesser-known Yankees employee, he said.
The rings themselves have a long and somewhat murky history. A story from 2007 in the Village voice titled “The Yankees’ Clean-Up Man” examined how and when Giuliani got them — questions that matter more than some fans initially think. The law prohibits New York officials from receiving gifts of significant monetary value from anyone doing business with the city. The Yankees, of course, do significant business with the city, and Giuliani never reported the rings as gifts to the city’s Conflict of Interest Board.
A representative for the MLB team told the newspaper that Giuliani paid $16,000. total for them: $13,500 for the 1998, 1999 and 2000 rings paid in 2003, and $2,500 for his 1996 ring paid in 2004. All of these payments occurred after he left office, and the rep told the newspaper that it could be “reasonably inferred” that he had not received the rings by then. Other sources, however, told the newspaper that he received the 1996 ring years earlier, in 1996 or 1997, while he was still in office. Each of these payments, regardless of timing, would have been far less than the market value of the rings themselves, let alone the resale value of the collectibles.
Also note, the Village voice said the Yankees did not offer ring sales to other non-team personnel during that run. (Representatives for Giuliani and the Yankees did not immediately respond to requests for comment).
Regardless of potential conflicts, Giuliani’s investment has largely paid off. A 1996 ring, made from 10-karat gold and made by Balfour, is currently on sale for $34,000. A 1999 version, in 14-karat gold also made by Balfour, was recently listed at Sotheby’s with an estimate of $26,000 to $35,000.
Championship rings remain among the most prized possessions in athletics, not least because modern rings are full of gems. The 2024 Kansas City Chiefs rings reportedly cost $40,000 each, before factoring in token value. In August, a pair of rings commemorating the Chiefs’ 2019 and 2022 triumphs each sold for more than $80,000 at Heritage Auctions.
A fraudulently acquired Patriots 2017 Super Bowl ring sold at auction for more than $337,000 in 2018, while New England owner Robert Kraft auctioned off his Super Bowl LI jewelry for more million dollars as part of a fundraiser during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kobe Bryant rings have all hit the block in recent years, fueling the bauble bubble.
In recent years, teams have started selling slightly cheaper versions to fans. Replica rings were also sold by official jeweler Jostens to Chiefs and Dodgers fans following championships in recent years.
The best of Sportico.com
Subscribe to the Sportico newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
