Harry Caray CEO buys Blackhawk’s stitches

26-Aug-13 – During Game Six of the Stanley Cup finals on June 24, Chicago Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw blocked a puck with his face. After a break for stitches he was back on the ice. Those stitches, taken out of Shaw’s right cheek, have now raised $13,000 for breast cancer research and the buyer is River North restaurateur Grant DePorter.

The CEO of Harry Caray’s Restaurant Group placed the winning bid on eBay on Sunday. He paid $6,500, which The V Foundation, a charity co-founded by ESPN, will match with an additional $6,500.

DePorter collects odd sports memorabilia. From the 2003 National League championship series that the Chicago Cubs lost, he has the infamous “Bartman ball,” purchased for $113,824.16 and then destroyed on national television.

He has offered a $50,000 reward for the missing game-winning puck from the Stanley Cup finals. “Since I couldn’t get the puck, I thought the stitches were probably the biggest symbol of the Stanley Cup this time around,” DePorter (left) told ESPN Chicago.

The stitches will be delivered to DePorter by Shaw himself in the next few weeks. They will then be on display at Harry Caray’s Tavern at Navy Pier.