Baseball produced many outstanding players before Babe Ruth, but only Ruth could have captured the imagination of the nation, and the world, becoming synonymous with baseball and America. The first great slugger and the most celebrated athlete of his time, Ruth came to the big leagues as a lefty pitcher with the Red Sox, where he won 89 games in six years while setting the World Series record for consecutive scoreless innings. Because of his prodigious power he was shifted to the outfield after his sale to the Yankees in 1920, where the Sultan of Swat would lead a powerful and renowned New York squad to seven American League pennants and four World Series titles. Ruth retired in 1935, after a partial season with the Boston Braves, ending his 22-year big league career with 714 home runs, including his remarkable 60 in 1927. His lifetime statistics also include 2,873 hits, 506 doubles, 2,174 runs, 2,213 RBI, a .342 batting average, a .474 on-base percentage, and a .690 slugging percentage.

Presented is a Babe Ruth signature and inscription on the half title page of his 1948 autobiography, “The Babe Ruth Story,” as told to Bob Considine. The Bambino has inscribed “To the greatest couple in the world Mary + Peter from Babe Ruth” in blue pen inside the hardcover first edition of the E.P. Dutton book. The inscription is poignant, as Ruth would die from an inoperable, cancerous tumor at the base of his skull on August 10, 1948, only a few weeks after the publication of this book. Ruth had been receiving chemotherapy in 1946 and 1947, but by late 1947, Ruth was unable to help with the writing of the book, which was almost entirely ghostwritten. In and out of the hospital in Manhattan, he left for Florida in February 1948, doing what activities he could. After six weeks he returned to New York to appear at a book-signing party. He also traveled to California to witness the filming of the movie based on the book. On June 5, 1948, a "gaunt and hollowed out" Ruth visited Yale University to donate a manuscript of “The Babe Ruth Story” to its library. The illustrated dust jacket is torn on the spine, with tears along all the edges, but is otherwise intact, while the book is in very good condition with clean white pages.  This item comes with a full LOA from JSA (B38247).

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