Babe RUTH (1895-1948)

Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
​See also : Sport  Baseball  Babe Ruth cards  Sport cards  Sport document  Baseball bat  Sport rewards and medals  Baseball jersey  Textiles

1914 Baltimore News Card
​​2023 SOLD for $ 7.2M by Robert Edward

In early 1914 George Ruth has not even reached his majority when the manager of the Baltimore Orioles in the so called International League appreciates his skills and offers him a first contract.  He is 19 years old. His fellows nickname him Jack Dunn's Baby. From then and forever he will be the Babe. He makes his first professional appearance on March 7.

Jack Dunn was arguably a good businessman : as early as July 4 he transferred George to a major league club. Ruth makes his MLB debut with the Boston Red Sox on July 11.

​During this short period, the local publisher Baltimore News had time to publish a  baseball card  of "Ruth, pitcher". The back announces the schedule from April 21 to September 26. This  rudimentary monochrome print is available in two variants, red and blue, in a large size 67 x 92 mm. The large borders and the paper stock are not conducive for a good preservation.

Ten copies are known. A blue card is graded VG-EX 4 by PSA.

A red copy with a provenance from the heirs of the original owner had been on loan from 1998 at the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore. With some creasing and some corner rounding, it is graded VG 3 by SGC. It was sold for $ 7.2M by Robert Edward on December 3, 2023, lot 1 illustrated in the pre sale release shared by Sports Collector Digest. It was sold for $ 4M by Heritage on October 24, 2025, lot 50080. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
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Another red example, in poor condition, graded PR 1 by PSA, was sold for $ 450K by Robert Edward on May 18, 2013, lot 1. It is illustrated in the pre sale release shared by AuctionPublicity.

Grok thoughts to both auctions :

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REA @collect_rea Nov 6, 2023
One of the world’s rarest baseball cards - the 1914 Baltimore News #BabeRuth Rookie - is coming to REA's Fall Auction beginning Nov 17. One of only 10 examples in existence, it's expected to sell for upwards of $10 million or more! https://buff.ly/3MvjfzA #thehobby

  • The 1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth rookie card, one of only 10 known examples, highlights a rare piece of sports history from Ruth’s early career with the Baltimore Orioles, predating his legendary tenure with the Yankees, and its expected $10 million+ value is driven by surging demand in the collectibles market as noted in a 2023 ESPN report.
  • This card’s preservation, graded a 3 by SGC, owes much to its storage in a museum for over 20 years, a fact supported by Robert Edward Auctions’ president Brian Dwyer, who noted its condition defied the typical wear of century-old memorabilia, challenging the narrative that such items degrade uniformly without special care.
  • The auction, set for November 17, 2023, by REA, coincides with a historical parallel: 100 years earlier on May 8, 1914, Ruth pitched a victory against the Buffalo Bisons, as documented by the Buffalo Evening News, underscoring his early prowess and the card’s cultural significance in baseball’s evolving legacy.

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Heritage Auctions Sports @Heritage_Sport
Babe Ruth’s earliest card will find a new home this month Just 10 examples of Babe Ruth’s 1914 Baltimore News rookie card are known, and only one has graded higher than this SGC VG 3 https://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball-cards/singles-pre-1930-/1914-baltimore-news-babe-ruth-rookie-sgc-vg-3-only-one-superior-in-any-population-/a/50080-80492.s?Type=social-sports-twitter-1914Ruth-100225…

  • Heritage Auctions promotes a 1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth rookie card, one of only 10 known examples, graded SGC VG 3—the second-highest grade after a single PSA VG-EX 4.
  • Previously sold for $7.2 million at Robert Edward Auctions in December 2023 with Babe Ruth Museum provenance, it headlines Heritage's October 24-26, 2025, Fall Sports Catalog Auction with an estimate of $7 million or higher.
  • The accompanying 4.6-second video rotates the slabbed card on a Heritage display stand, underscoring its rarity as Ruth's first card from his minor league Baltimore Orioles tenure.

1916 MLB Rookie Card
​Intro

The earliest trading card displaying "Ruth - pitcher" is a poor quality monochrome local edition by the Baltimore News. Ruth left Baltimore in July 1914 to make his MLB debut with the Boston Red Sox.

The MLB rookie card of the future super-champion, published in 1916, is much more satisfactory. He was caught in action, watching where is the ball which he just threw. He has not yet retrieved his balance and the slightly angled view makes him appear slimmer than life. The monochrome sepia print is very neat. He is already identified by his famous nickname 'Babe Ruth'.

Who produced this legendary image ? Original inscriptions are absent, which is often the case when the publisher's main clients are companies that use the back side for their advertising. The Sporting News is not the editor but one of such advertisers, like the Standard Biscuit Company. The real author appears to be a Chicago photographer named Felix Mendelsohn, almost a namesake of the musician.

The American Card Catalog, which defined the denominations of all series in 1939, did a commendable job but without resolving such ambiguities. So Babe Ruth's rookie card is in the M101-4 and M101-5 series with a Sporting News or blank back and D350 with a Standard Biscuit back.

The three series have about 200 positions each. For the 30 players identified with the same position number, it is impossible to know if a card belongs to M101-4 or -5. The Ruth card has the number 151 in all three. M101-5 may be earlier than M101-4.

Still worse : the denomination M101, from -1 to -7, gathers alongside -4 and -5 Sporting News supplements and postcards plus photos later published under an FM copyright, although no other joint operation between the magazine and Mendelsohn is known.

​1
​NM 7 by PSA
2021 SOLD for $ 2.4M by Mile High Card

An M101-4-151 with blank back rated NM 7 by PSA was sold for $ 2.4M on November 11, 2021 by Mile High Card, lot 1.

An M101-5-151 with blank back also rated NM 7 by PSA was sold for $ 720K by Heritage on August 27, 2016, lot 80001.

2
​NM 7 by SGC
​2023 SOLD for $ 1.77M by Heritage

An M101-4-151 Babe Ruth rookie card with a Sporting News back has been graded NM 7 by SGC. Its centering is better than usual for this edition.

It was sold for $ 1.77M by Heritage on February 25, 2023, lot 80012. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.

​1919 Contract between Red Sox and Yankees
​2017 SOLD for $ 2.3M by Lelands

A bad decision can change the course of history. It is also true in sport.

Until 1918 the Boston Red Sox team dominated the prestigious World Series of Major League Baseball. The 1919 season is bad for the Red Sox and the club owner Harry Frazee decides to change his strategy, preferring to build a consistent team rather than relying on a star player. The larger than life behavior of Babe Ruth and his growing demands of salary do not please Frazee : the player George H. Ruth is now available for sale !

Frazee who is also a theater director is in a urgent need of money. He accepts the proposal of the New York Yankees of a $ 300K mortgage loan hiring his Boston ballpark and sells Ruth to the Yankees for $ 100K.

The contract selling the player is signed with a notary in New York City on December 26, 1919. Cautiously some clauses are added on how both parties shall handle a probable new demand of salary increase by Ruth or a possible deficiency of the player to work for the Yankees.

Three copies of this contract have been established. Frazee's document was sold for $ 1M by Sotheby's on June 10, 2005. The document attributed to Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert was sold for $ 2.3M by Lelands on June 30, 2017. lot 2.  The third copy did not resurface.

Babe Ruth signed with the New York Yankees in the following month. The most brilliant part of his exceptional sporting career was beginning.

From a sporting point of view, Frazee's decision is a disaster for the Boston club which disappears until 2004 from the list of the World Series winners. This long period is assimilated with a curse in the legend of baseball under the name of Curse of the Bambino.

Special Report
1914-1919 Babe Ruth the Two Way Player

Babe Ruth, born George Herman Ruth Jr. in 1895, is widely regarded as the original two-way superstar in baseball history, excelling as both a dominant left-handed pitcher and a powerful hitter during his early years with the Boston Red Sox. While his legacy is most famous for revolutionizing the game as a home run king with the New York Yankees, his two-way prowess from 1914 to 1919 laid the foundation for comparisons to modern players like Shohei Ohtani. Ruth's dual-threat ability helped the Red Sox win three World Series titles (1915, 1916, 1918), and he remains the only player in MLB history to record a shutout and a multi-home run game in the World Series. Over his career, he amassed 94 wins and a 2.28 ERA as a pitcher (fourth-lowest among left-handers all-time), alongside a .342 batting average, 714 home runs, and 2,214 RBIs as a hitter. His overall career WAR of 183.1 (combining pitching and hitting value) is the highest in MLB history.
Ruth's breakthrough as a two-way player began in 1914 at age 19, when he signed with the Red Sox and debuted as a pitcher, going 2-1 with a 3.91 ERA in four starts while hitting .200 in limited at-bats. In 1915, he emerged as a rotation staple, posting an 18-8 record, 2.44 ERA, and 112 strikeouts in 217.2 innings, while contributing offensively with a .315 average, four home runs, and 20 RBIs in 42 games—helping Boston to a World Series win. His pitching peaked in 1916 with a league-leading 1.75 ERA, 23-12 record, nine shutouts, and 170 strikeouts over 323.2 innings (a career-high), earning a 158 ERA+ and another World Series title. At the plate, he hit .272 with three homers in 67 at-bats. In 1917, Ruth went 24-13 with a 2.01 ERA and led the AL with 35 complete games, while batting .325 with two homers in limited action.
The pinnacle of Ruth's two-way career came in 1918 and 1919, the only seasons he truly balanced both roles extensively. In 1918, amid World War I roster shortages, he pitched 166.1 innings (13-7, 2.22 ERA, 40 strikeouts) while playing 95 games as an outfielder or first baseman, hitting .300/.411/.555 with 11 home runs (tied for league lead) and 61 RBIs—becoming the first player to lead the league in homers while also pitching significantly. He threw a shutout in Game 1 of the World Series against the Cubs, securing Boston's third ring in four years. In 1919, Ruth revolutionized offense by smashing a then-record 29 home runs, batting .322/.456/.657 with 103 RBIs in 130 games (mostly in left field), while pitching 133.1 innings (9-5, 2.97 ERA). This made him the last player before Ohtani to achieve 10+ wins and 10+ homers in a season.
After being sold to the Yankees in 1920 for $100,000—a deal that sparked the "Curse of the Bambino"—Ruth transitioned to full-time outfield to maximize his hitting, as daily play was incompatible with pitching demands in that era. He pitched sparingly thereafter: five innings in 1920 (1-0), two in 1921, one in 1930 (a complete game win at age 35), and one in 1933 (another complete game). His two-way days effectively ended after 1919, but his early versatility produced 20.4 pitching WAR and 162.7 hitting WAR, making him the top two-way player by geometric mean (57.6).
​Ruth's two-way impact extended to the postseason, where he posted a 0.87 ERA over 31 innings (fourth all-time among pitchers with 30+ postseason innings), including three wins in the 1916 and 1918 World Series. His shift to hitting full-time exploded the game's popularity, with 714 career homers in just 8,399 at-bats—despite losing prime hitting years to pitching. Ruth's era lacked modern metrics like velocity, but his blend of elite pitching (e.g., leading the AL in ERA, shutouts) and pioneering power hitting set a benchmark unmatched until the 21st century.

1920 Babe Ruth Road Jersey
2012 SOLD for $ 4.4M by SCP

The jerseys worn by baseball champions in the 1920s are extremely rare at auction. Some have been kept for many decades by their families as a mere memory.
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The players used two jerseys, a home jersey for the games on their field and a road jersey for trips. A jersey could be used throughout one season or more, which further increases their rarity.

Compared to the next period, documents allowing photo-matching are scarce. The experts thus pay the greatest attention to the details of making which allow an identification of the year or a range of years, rather than on the shears in the textile or on misalignments in the inscriptions.

On May 19, 2012, SCP Auctions sold for $ 4.4M a game worn jersey of Babe Ruth. ​A photo of the champion made in March 1920 shows him with a jersey identical as this example.

This road jersey had been exhibited for many years at the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum in Baltimore. Its New York Yankees front marking is dated circa 1920. The maker was Spalding.

In very good condition, it retains its original identification with the name of Ruth.

1918-1922 R2 Bat
2022 SOLD for $ 1.68M by Heritage

So invited by Hillerich and Bradsby, the players returned to the factory their favorite bat to serve as a model for the next orders of Louisville Sluggers.

The first agreement between Babe Ruth and H and B happened in 1918 when the 23 year old champion was playing for the Boston Red Sox. His model bat identified by an R2 mark was sold for $ 540K by Heritage on October 2, 2009, lot 82067. It is graded A 10 by PSA/DNA,

Its characteristics are 36 inches and 39 ounces. It is authenticated by PSA/DNA and by Mears and graded A10*. The asterisk is rewarding the historical character of that piece of equipment.

R2 bats were made for Ruth until 1926, spanning the transition period from Dead Ball to Live Ball and Ruth's transition period from the Red Sox to the New York Yankees. Such game used bats of Babe Ruth have some features brought by the player to facilitate its handling such as added scratches or rings. His phenomenal hitting precision results in a grouping of ball impacts on the lumber.

​A Babe Ruth bat was sold for $ 1.68M by Heritage on August 27, 2022, lot 53059. It is graded a perfect GU10 by PSA/DNA.

This Louisville Slugger is clearly of R2 type although that reference is not marked. it is nearly 36 inch in length and 43.8 oz in weight, providing a terminus post quem in the 1918 R2 contract. The Ruth signature is stamped on the barrel.

It comes from the collection of a friend of Frank Baker, a leading fellow in the Murderers' Row of the New York Yankees. This player nicknamed "Home Run" Baker admired Ruth who had "everybody else, including (him)self, hopelessly outclassed."

It is believed that Ruth had presented this bat to Baker, who retired from MLB in 1922. The Hillerich and Bradsby brand mark provides a terminus ante quem at 1922.

A Babe Ruth professional bat graded GU10 by PSA/DNA was sold privately through Hunt in April 2023 for $ 1.85M. It is game matched to a 1921 photo of Babe Ruth in a high flying action typical of the new Live Ball era. Before that matching, it had been sold for $ 400K by Heritage on February 24, 2018, lot 80043. It had been exhibited in the early 1940s at the Polo Grounds.

​A 41.5 ounce R2 Louisville slugger has been autographed by the champion to an otherwise unidentified Gabe at a partly erased date in September 21, the glorious season when Ruth recorded when Ruth recorded 59 home runs. It is graded a perfect GU 10 by PSA/DNA. Marks at upper barrel which are typical Ruth features, as he was one of very few players to adopt a label-down stance. It was sold for $ 885K by Heritage on August 24, 2024, lot 80150.

The bat associated with his 59th homer was sold for $ 720K by Heritage on February 21, 2015, lot 80024. It is graded GU10 by PSA/DNA.

​Ruth's 52nd 1921 homer is therefore not breaking a record. It was scored on September 7 at the Polo Grounds in New York against his former team, the Boston Red Socks. Accompanied by  period documents, it was sold for $ 930K by Heritage on May 8, 2020, lot 57057. It is graded GU 10 by PSA/DNA.

An R2 autographed to a friend in 1920 has been graded PSA/DNA GU 10 and MEARS A10. It displays many hits of balls grouped on a very small surface demonstrating the highly skilled gesture of Ruth. It was sold for $ 870K by Heritage on August 21, 2021, lot 80064.

1927 World Series Ring 
2017 SOLD for $ 2.1M by Lelands

The championship ring is a tradition in American team sports. This reward is not comparable to a sports medal but to the celebration and commemoration of a victory. It is generally offered by the winning club of a major championship without limit of quantity : the players receive it but also the managers, the coaches, the sponsors.

This tradition gradually took hold in the 1920s in Major League Baseball for the benefit of the winning team of the World Series. The first rings linked to the MLB were awarded in 1922 to the New York Giants.

In 1923 when the New York Yankees won the World Series the memory offered to them was not a ring but a pocket watch. The watch of Babe Ruth was sold for $ 720K by Heritage on February 22, 2014.

The next victory of the Yankees in the World Series was in 1927. It was also a sporting feat : they had won all four games against the Pittsburgh Pirates. That year as a whole was exceptional for Babe Ruth who scored 60 home runs in this single season, a record in the MLB competitions.

The Yankees have now joined the new tradition. The World Series ring in 14K yellow gold presented to Babe Ruth in 1927 was sold for $ 2.1M by Lelands closing on June 30, 2017, lot 1. A slight chip to the diamond is announced.

The price of a ring at auction depends on the prestige of the sporting achievement that has been rewarded. When the basketball player 'Dr J' Erving sold his collection in November 2011 by SCP Auctions, his 1974 ABA championship ring was sold for $ 460K while the best of his other rings did not reach $ 250K.

1928-1929 Road Jersey
​2019 SOLD for $ 5.6M by Hunt

A Spalding road jersey of size 46 attributed to Babe Ruth has just surfaced. It was sold for $ 5.6M by Hunt Auctions on June 15, 2019, lot 47. The sale is mostly devoted to a personal collection of Babe Ruth, perhaps to be correlated with the very recent death of his second daughter.

The 'Yankees' mark on the front side enables to date the garment between 1927 and 1930. A label inside the collar is marked 'Ruth'. A number 3 has been erased at some point while leaving some traces.

The photos of Babe Ruth in 1927 show another placement of the buttons. The photo-matching orients rather towards 1928 or 1929. It is in 1929 that the Yankees began to sew a number on the jerseys to facilitate the identification of the players by the public. Ruth had received the number 3.

1932 Called Shot Jersey
2024 SOLD for $ 24M by Heritage

The 1932 World Series was opposing the New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs. An animosity was growing between both teams since Yankee manager Joe McCarthy had been fired by the Cubs two years earlier despite winning the National League pennant in the previous season.

Game 3 was played in Chicago. On the fifth inning, Babe Ruth hit a home run after making a pointing gesture visible from the whole stadium. The ball traveled to the stands for an easy home run which was decisive for the Yankees to lead the Series. This homer in a mere jogging made laugh the presidential candidate Roosevelt.

What the champion expressed in his emotional gesture has not been correctly disclosed, possibly simply a challenge against the insults from the Cubs. The unprecedented shot beyond the field was interpreted by observers as indissociable from the sporting feat, identified by a journalist as a "called shot", a term used in billiards. Ruth later said that it was the funniest, proudest moment he had ever had in baseball.

A road jersey was identified in 2005 as the possible uniform of the called shot. From a family's memory it had been presented by Ruth to a friend after losing a round of golf on him. The story shared by Grey Flannel also states an auction result by them at $ 1.06M which is not reported in the auction catalogue, on June 30, 2005 lot 1.

​This garment is now photo-matched with three events of the same day. SGC assessed a Superior grade. It was sold for $ 24M by Heritage on August 24, 2024, lot 80162. Please watch the videos shared by the auction house, narrated by their executive vice president Joe Orlando.

​Response by Grok :

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Heritage Auctions @HeritageAuction May 21, 2024 5:10
It's one of sports history's most talked about, debated, and imitated moments. Now the jersey that Babe Ruth wore--photomatched, authenticated as the one worn during the fifth-inning home run against the Chicago Cubs during Game 3 of the 1932, the infamous "called shot"
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  • The X post from Heritage Auctions discusses the sale of Babe Ruth's jersey from the 1932 World Series, specifically the game where he allegedly made his famous "called shot" home run against the Chicago Cubs, a moment that has been debated and celebrated in baseball lore for nearly a century.
  • This jersey, authenticated and photomatched to the exact game, sold for a record-breaking $24.12 million in August 2024, surpassing previous records for sports memorabilia and highlighting the enduring cultural and financial value of Ruth's legacy.
  • The "called shot" remains a controversial and iconic moment in sports history, with grainy footage and varying accounts leaving the exact nature of Ruth's gesture open to interpretation, yet it continues to captivate fans and historians alike, as evidenced by the jersey's auction and the ongoing discussion in media and academia.

​1933 Goudey
​2021 SOLD for $ 4.2M by Memory Lane

Inserted in cigarette or tobacco packs, the baseball card falls into disuse during World War I. Some manufacturers of caramel or chocolate candies barely maintain this tradition. Lovers of images prefer postcards.

Goudey Gum Company is a leader in the chewing gum market. The founder of the company retires in 1932. In 1933 the new management includes silkscreen printed cards in the gum packs. The drawing executed from a photograph is simple and the colors are bright. The back includes in full format a short descriptive text beside the identification of the publisher, which was much more attractive at that place than on a postcard.

The most important series is devoted entirely to baseball players under the title of Big League Chewing Gum. Its 240 images are published by Goudey in Boston. 94 of them are renumbered and published in Montreal by World Wide Gum Company which was the Goudey branch in Canada.

The editions released in the same year include a multi-sport series of 48 cards for the Sport Kings chewing gum, 216 Indian views for the Indian chewing gum and two other series of 48 cards : Boy Scouts and Sea Raiders.

The Goudey Big League series, inserted in 1933 and 1934 in the Gum wax packs of that brand, brings a quality glow within the decadence of the 1930s trading cards, in competition with postcards. It is made of 240 positions including four Babe Ruth at position numbers 53, 144, 149, 181. Number 181 is a close-up portrait on which the leaning champion carefully observes an action out of the field of view. This picture is not included in the other series.

The star lot of the collection of the late Thomas Newman was a 1933 Goudey # 53 featuring Ruth with bat on shoulder and yellow background. It was sold for $ 4.2M by Memory Lane on July 10, 2021, lot 1. It is the only card of this position graded Mint 9 by PSA with none higher and none equal or higher by SGC.

In order for young collectors to continue buying the gum, the number 106 of the 1933 series was originally not used. The deception has been discovered. In the following year Goudey created a 1933-106 to provide it to angry fans. This card with the effigy of retired champion Napoleon Lajoie is the rarest in the series and no copy was stained by gum. A 1933-106 graded Mint 9 by PSA was sold for $ 230K by Goldin on October 1, 2016.