Marlins selling unused tickets from Halladay's perfect game

You can own a piece of Phillies history, even if you weren't there to witness it. Today, the Florida Marlins will begin selling unused tickets to Roy Halladay's perfect game at the box office and online. Tickets will be regularly priced.

"There have only been 20 perfect games, so they will grow in value somewhat, but I wouldn't go betting my kids' college education on it," said Ted Taylor, of STAT Authentic LLC, an Abington-based collectible company.

"The ticket is more significant if you were there. I think the people who would purchase this ticket are doing so more for curiosity's sake, because these aren't going to go up very much."

Paid attendance Saturday night when Halladay threw the 20th perfect game in baseball history was about 25,000, bolstered by postgame fireworks, and more than twice the crowd of 10,115 that showed up for yesterday's game against Milwaukee. That was the smallest crowd of the season.

Sun Life Stadium capacity is a little more than 36,000, so plenty of tickets remain available.

"I am sure the Marlins are doing this because they have a ton of tickets left over, given they don't really sell a lot of tickets to begin with," Taylor said.

A Marlins ticket representative could not be reached last night.

Of all the days to go on a rehab assignment . . .

After pitching a scoreless seventh inning for Class A Clearwater Saturday night, Brad Lidge returned to the clubhouse to see teammate Roy Halladay pitching a perfect game against the Marlins. The Threshers were in St. Lucie, about an hour-and-a-half away from Sun Life Stadium, so Lidge settled in to watch the final three innings of the game on TV. He was joined by the rest of the Threshers after they finished their 7-2 victory.

"That really was frustrating," Lidge said. "It's frustrating to be on the DL, and then a guy throws a perfect game and you're not even there to congratulate him. But it was really cool. All of the guys with Clearwater were real pumped up."

The cap Roy Halladay wore during his perfect game and a ball from the game will be heading to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, a Hall spokesman said last night. They should be on display by next week.

The Hall already has on display the spikes worn by Oakland's Dallas Braden and a ball from his perfect game on May 9.

The last time two perfect games were thrown in the same season was 1880. Worcester's Lee Richmond threw his on June 12, with Providence's John Ward replicating the feat 5 days later.

Among those who called Roy Halladay to congratulate him was his former Toronto manager, Cito Gaston. However, Halladay did not pick up, leading Gaston to joke that the Phillies ace was probably too busy working out after the game. "He's no-nonsense when it comes to the baseball season," Gaston told reporters in Toronto. "He works hard. He works on his off days."

Daily News sports writers David Murphy and Kerith Gabriel contributed to this report.