Babe Ruth is once again atop the sports collectibles world after a photo matched game worn jersey from the 1932 World Series sold for a record setting $24.12M at auction.
The jersey was one of the most sought after pieces of sports memorabilia, not only because it was a game worn jersey from a World Series game, but also for the fact that it was photo matched to Game 3 of the series. Baseball fans will remember October 1st, 1932 as the day Ruth “called his shot” by pointing to deep centre field and then hitting a home run against the Chicago Cubs.
The $24M price tag makes the jersey the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia of all time, surpassing the $12.6M mark previously held by a mint condition 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card. The previous record holder for most expensive jersey was a game worn Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls jersey from game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals which garnered $10.1M at auction.
“It has been called the greatest moment in baseball history, a characterization unharmed by the fact that nobody knows for certain if it actually happened the way the popular story goes,” read the item description on the Heritage Auctions website. “No shortage of evidence exists to bolster the arguments of both sides of the debate, with Babe Ruth himself supplying his own statements of affirmation and denial, but the supremacy of The Called Shot in the lore of our national pastime has always been less about whether or not the story was literally true and much more about the fact that so many people have believed that it could be. The heart of the matter is the almost religious belief that there could exist a man so divinely endowed with talent that he might proclaim and fulfill a prophecy like that on the sport’s grandest stage. Babe Ruth was just such a man.”
Yankees items from the early 1900’s have always been popular amongst collectors, with Ruth being viewed as the “holy grail” of the collecting community. Those factors, plus the significance of the moment helped to double the previous record paid for any sports related item on the secondary market.
It also didn’t hurt that it was Ruth’s last World Series, and the final home run he would hit in a World Series game either. Just another feather in the cap of the New York legend when it comes to his enduring legacy amongst sports fans nearly 80 years after his death.
Photo: Heritage Auctions. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or fewer.