A New York Yankees jersey worn by Babe Ruth during perhaps the most storied moment of the baseball legend’s career has sold for $24.12 million, shattering the record for most expensive sports collectible sold at auction.
The gray road jersey, sold by Heritage Auctions on Sunday in Dallas, was said to be worn by Ruth when he "called his shot" in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series against the Chicago Cubs.
The sale almost doubles the previous auction record for the most paid for a piece of sports memorabilia. That was for a 1952 Topps card of another Yankee legend, Mickey Mantle, which fetched $12.6 million at a Heritage auction in 2022. Before Sunday, the most expensive game-worn sports jersey was that worn by Michael Jordan in the first Chicago Bulls game of the 1998 NBA Finals; it sold for $10.1 million in 2022.
To authenticate the jersey, it was photo-matched by several third parties, using three photos that were taken before and after the famed World Series game, according to Heritage.
It was during that 1932 game at Wrigley Field in which Ruth was said to have prophesized the placement of his second and final home run of the game, which the Yankees won 7-5 before taking the series win from the Cubs. It happened after Ruth got two balls and two strikes on the count.
With grainy black-and-white video footage serving as evidence of the moment, the slugger appears to be pointing beyond the outfield, possibly indicating where he’s about to sink the homer, just before hitting it far over the center field fence.
Another telling has it that Ruth was gesturing toward the Cubs’ dugout, where players had been taunting the Yankee who then decided return the razzing before his hit.
Ruth himself has supported different versions of the event, at one point claiming that he called his shot.
What really happened has been disputed as much as its been memorialized in film and imitated on amateur baseball fields.
“It is a mystery to this day,” sports journalist Joe Posnanski told NPR’s Scott Simon last year. “What we do know is that the Cubs dugout was really riding Ruth, and he was really, you know, sort of riding them back. And we know he made some very grand gestures with his hand. There are those who say he held up his finger just to say it only takes one swing. And there are some who say he held up two fingers because they say he was saying, 'OK, I have two strikes, and watch what I do now.' ”
Fittingly, there’s been an equally meticulous debate in the process to authenticate the jersey, with one third-party company ruling ahead of the auction that their photo-matching was unable to confirm a match.
The myth surrounding Ruth’s play that day has only strengthened his legendary status in baseball history, Heritage Director of Sports Chris Ivy suggested, after a more than six-hour bidding war over the jersey.
“It is clear by the strong auction participation and record price achieved that astute collectors have no doubt as to what this Ruth jersey is and what it represents,” Ivy said in a statement. “The legend of Babe Ruth and the myth and mystery surrounding his ‘called shot’ are united in this one extraordinary artifact.”
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