Babe RUTH (1895-1948)

See also : Sport  Baseball  Sport equipment  Sport document  Sport images < 1940  Baseball uniform  Sport rewards and medals  Textiles  Garment
Chronology : 1916  1917  1920  1929

1916 Babe Ruth with The Sporting News
2021 SOLD for $ 940K including premium

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 Biscuit back. The three series have about 200 positions each. 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.

A M101-5-151 with blank back rated NM 7 by PSA was sold for $ 720K including premium by Heritage on August 27, 2016. A M101-4-151 with The Sporting News back graded VG+ 3.5 by SGC was sold for $ 440K including premium by Heritage on February 28, 2021.

An M101-4-151 also with The Sporting News back, graded EX-MT 6 by PSA, is lot 1 in the online sale by Memory Lane which ends on March 20. The auction record for this type was reached almost three weeks before closing.

1916-1918 The Hitter of the Red Sox
2021 SOLD for $ 1.02M including premium

Hired in 1914 by the Boston Red Sox, Babe Ruth becomes the best left-handed pitcher in the MLB. He soon tires of this position which is neither active enough nor visible enough. He still hits little for his club and the bats used by him in this period are very rare.

In 1917 the clubs could no longer maintain their teams in full because of the conscription. Ruth takes this opportunity to become a hitter. He is gifted : as early as 1919 he breaks the MLB record for the number of home runs scored in a single season with 29 home runs. The transition in 1920 from Dead Ball to Live Ball further increases his dominance.

In 1915 the pitcher had scored only four home runs. A Spalding bat used by him during that season is the earliest known bat linked to Ruth. It is 35.25 inches long and weighs 37.5 ounces. Graded GU 9 by PSA/DNA, it passed at Heritage on December 10, 2017. Heavier bats will be more effective. Ruth acquires in 1916 a Louisville Slugger weighing 44 ounces.

On December 16, 2020, Christie's associated with Hunt sold for $ 600K including premium a Louisville Slugger from the period 1916-1918, lot 15. It will be sold by Heritage in an online auction closing on February 27, lot 80089.

This piece is 35.75 inches long and weighs 43.6 ounces. It is inscribed RUTH on the barrel and its provenance is impeccable : the former champion himself cracked it during a demonstration in 1944. It has been professionally repaired and is graded GU 9.5 by PSA/DNA.

This experimental period ends in 1918 when Hillerich and Bradsby offer the champion to make his choice from their product line of Louisville Sluggers. Identified as the R2 model, the bat that fits Babe Ruth is standardized between 36 and 39 ounces. Graded A 10 by PSA/DNA, the prototype entrusted to Ruth was sold for $ 540K including premium by Heritage on October 2, 2009.

​1918 Salary Increase for George H. Ruth
2014 SOLD 1.02 M$ including premium

Since 1914, Babe Ruth made ​​the happiness of his bosses in the Boston American League Baseball Club better known as the Red Sox. Originally a pitcher, the lefty has improved his batting skill for a more interesting and prestigious position on the field.

He knows that he can demand a salary increase for 1918. He will earn $ 5,000 for the new season, compared with the $ 3,500 of his paycheck from the previous year. The debate is not difficult because the employer knows the actual value of the player. This contract is considered as a bargain for the club.

The contract was signed in triplicate on January 16, 1918 by the player, the club owner and president of the American League in the official format. The copy for Babe Ruth is the oldest surviving contractual document concerning the champion. It is for sale by Goldin Auctions in Baltimore on July 12. Here is the link to the site of the auction house.

Babe Ruth continues his prodigious career. After the 1919 season, he was transferred by the Red Sox to the New York Yankees. A copy of the contract signed by both clubs has been sold for $ 1M including premium by Sotheby's on 10 June 2005.

POST SALE COMMENT

The contract signed in January 1918 was sold for $ 1.02 M. The release issued by the sports business reporter Darren Rovell compares this result with the price including premium obtained by Sotheby's in 2005 for the contract between Red Sox and Yankees. This release is linked in the tweet below published by the auction house.

1918 contract sells for $1 million http://t.co/7IGU5SuOoH http://t.co/wunf8W3mwe

— Goldin Auctions (@GoldinAuctions) July 13, 2014 

This document is illustrated in the post sale release posted by Auction Report.

​1919 George H Ruth available for Sale
​2017 SOLD for $ 2.3M including premium

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 including premium by Sotheby's on June 10, 2005. The document attributed to Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert is offered as lot 2 in the online sale opened by Lelands with a closing date on June 30. Here is the link to Lelands.com. 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.

​1920 The Jersey of the Babe
2012 SOLD 4.4 M$ including premium

I often discuss baseball in this group, because it is the most active sport on the auction market. With Babe Ruth, baseball has hosted one of the most outstanding athletes of sports history in all categories.

The sale by SCP Auctions on May 19, online from California, of a wool jersey of the Babe is indeed a considerable event. Two weeks before the auction ends, this lot has already surpassed Lou Gehrig's jersey sold for $ 717K including premium by Heritage on November 5, 2010.

Moreover this jersey dates from an exceptional period in Ruth's career and is in very good condition. It is marked NEW YORK, which makes sense for this sportsman. However, Ruth had made the success of the Boston Red Sox before being transferred in 1920 to the New York Yankees.

The jersey has retained its original identification with the name of Ruth. A photo of the champion made in March 1920 shows him with a jersey identical as the example to be sold, confirming, if not the year, at least the period when the garment was made by Spalding and worn by Ruth.

Here is the link to the press release shared by AuctionReport.

POST SALE COMMENT

The prices of the rarest pieces have no predictable limit. Babe Ruth's jersey was sold $ 3.7 million before fees, 4.4 million including premium.

The memorabilia from Babe Ruth provided two other notable results: $ 590K including premium for a bat and $ 540K including premium for a cap.

This sale was also very successful for baseball cards from the 1950s in mint condition (PSA10): $ 430K including premium for Roberto Clemente, and $ 360K including premium for Hank Aaron.

For post WWII baseball, let us also mention a jersey worn by Mickey Mantle in 1968, sold $ 370K including premium.

1921 A Bat for Vaudeville
2020 SOLD for $ 930K including premium

With his hitting strength and skill, Babe Ruth is the champion of home run. He is the MLB leader for the home runs every year from 1918 to 1931 except 1922 and 1925. Baseball fans follow with passion the cumulative number of his homers.

In 1920 which was his first season with the New York Yankees, Ruth had already overtaken his record before the improvement of the ball which opened the Live ball era. He ended that season with 54 homers. 1921 is even better, with 59 homers. The bat associated with his 59th home run was sold for $ 720K including premium by Heritage on February 21, 2015.

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. Ruth had used a heavy Hillerich and Bradsby bat.

What follows is typical of the champion's deep but very personal wit, self-confident enough for not being overwhelmed in the details.

He did not inscribe this bat but kept it for a few months as a memory of this home run. In Cincinnati in January 1922, an amateur player is rewarded as the best hitter in his category. A ceremony is organized at the local Keith's Theatre, belonging to a chain of vaudeville theaters. Babe Ruth gives his bat.

It is supported by a typed and signed letter, dated January 10, on a letterhead from the Hotel Ansonia in New York where Ruth frequently resided. The letter is addressed to Keith's local manager, Ned Hastings, without mentioning the young award winner. It attests to its use for the 52nd home run of 1921 with a humorous comment : "It served me well in baseball and I hope it will also serve you as well in vaudeville".

The risk of confusion is lifted by a press clipping from the Cincinnati Enquirer, published the day after the award ceremony during which Hastings and Ruth together presented this specific bat to the young player with speeches and handshakes. Interestingly Ruth is already addressed in the newspaper with his new mocking nickname of Sultan of Swat. The younger champion is the "Little Babe".

The bat accompanied by the two period documents referred above is estimated $ 500K for sale online by Heritage on May 8, lot 57057. It is graded GU 10 by PSA/DNA

1923 Babe Ruth's Bat
2004 SOLD for $ 1.26M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2019 before the auction of another bat by Heritage (see below)

The Black Sox Scandal could have permanently tarnished the reputation of America's favorite sport. This case of faked baseball matches finds its epilogue in 1921 by a public trial and the ban for life of the players at fault.

In the same year Christy Walsh invents two lucrative jobs. He manages a syndicate of ghost writers who prepare texts to be endorsed by baseball personalities and approach the top players including Babe Ruth for becoming their business agent.

We must encourage young people to be reconciled with baseball. Following an initiative of the Los Angeles Evening Herald, Walsh and Ruth decide in 1923 that for three consecutive seasons the bat of the first home run of the champion will be inscribed and signed by him and given to the winner of a baseball contest organized for Californian students.

In 1923 Ruth scores his first homer on April 18 during the inauguration of the Yankee Stadium. It was impossible to imagine a more prestigious event. The bat used for this feat is awarded on June 7 by the newspaper to a young player named Victor Orsatti. It was sold on December 13, 2004 by Sotheby's for $ 1.26M including premium, a huge price for a sports memorabilia at that time.

In 1924 Ruth records his first homer on April 20 in Washington DC. His bat is awarded as promised to the winner of the Californian contest, Phil Grossman. It passed at Heritage on February 23, 2019.

1927 The Ring of the Champion
2017 SOLD for $ 2.1M including premium

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 including premium 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 is listed as lot 1 in the online sale organized by Lelands closing on June 30. A slight chip to the diamond is announced. Here is the link to Lelands.com.

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 A Road Jersey of Babe Ruth
​2019 SOLD for $ 5.6M including premium

The jerseys worn by baseball champions before World War II are extremely rare. Some have been kept for many decades by their families as a mere memory.

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 rarer. 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.

A jersey marked 'New York' used by Babe Ruth was sold for $ 4.4M including premium by SCP on May 19, 2012 after being exhibited for many years at the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum in Baltimore. This New York Yankees road jersey was dated circa 1920.

A Spalding road jersey of size 46 attributed to Babe Ruth has just surfaced. It will be sold by Hunt Auctions on June 15 at the Yankee Stadium, lot 47. The sale is essentially devoted to a personal collection of Babe Ruth, perhaps to be correlated with the very recent death of his second daughter. Here is the link to this auction.

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.

1929 The Champion of the Live Ball
2019 SOLD for $ 1M including premium

In 1920 a baseball player dies after being hit in the head by a ball. The MLB immediately modifies its rules for a better visibility of the balls. This change has a direct impact on the hitting rate and indirectly on the number of home runs. It separates the baseball history into two periods, the Dead Ball era and the Live Ball era.

At the time of this transition, Babe Ruth already has six years of experience in MLB where he is one of the best hitters. With his imposing physique that does not prevent a speedy running, he already holds the record of 29 home runs in a single season. He greatly increases this performance with the new regulation. This is how this run far away from the ball has become for the public the most spectacular action of the game.

In a single season, Babe Ruth achieves 59 home runs in 1921 and 60 in 1927. He is the first to reach 300, 400, 500, 600, 700 cumulated home runs in MLB.

Babe Ruth starts 1929 with a cumulated 470 home runs. At that date, no other player has exceeded 250. The public is passionate about the approach of 500. Ruth is pretentious and likes to announce his success in advance. On August 11, 1929 in Cleveland, he announces and executes the 500th home run of his career. He hit the ball with such a strength that it came out of the Park.

The Louisville Slugger of the Cleveland feat was first kept by Ruth, then presented in the 1940s to one of his golfing, bowling  and dining fellows. Hidden by this family to avoid attracting burglars, this glorious bat remained unknown in the hobby. It has just surfaced and is estimated $ 1M by SCP Auctions in an online sale closing on December 14, lot 2. It is graded GU10 by PSA/DNA.

The bat used in 1927 by Babe Ruth for his record breaking 60th home run of the season was sold for $ 660K including premium by Heritage on May 17, 2018.