Babe Ruth 100th Anniversary Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/12/2014
Babe Ruth helped lead his New York Yankees teams to four World Series championships, and if not for the juggernaut which was the Philadelphia A’s of 1929-1931, it literally could have been three more. But while Ruth, Gehrig and Co. were shut out of the postseason in those three seasons, they did dethrone the vaunted A’s in the American League and won the World Series in 1932, sweeping the Chicago Cubs. Counting sweeps in 1927 over Pittsburgh and 1928 over St. Louis, which made it three straight sweeps for the Bronx Bombers. Babe Ruth won the last 12 World Series games of his legendary career.
And Ruth made his last series appearance one to remember, by hitting his “Called Shot” home run in Game 3 at Chicago off Cubs pitcher Charley Root, one of the greatest moments in all of sports. The great Lefty Gomez was in the dugout that day, and after Ruth rounded the bases, pointed at pitcher Root, hearing the hoots and catcalls of all the Cubs faithful, Gomez followed him to the water cooler. After Babe took a long drink of water, Gomez asked Ruth, “Babe, that was amazing! What would have happened if you pointed out to centerfield and didn’t a home run?” The Babe replied, “Well, I never thought of that!” Typical Ruth and the looseness those Yankee squads played the game.
This magnificent lightly creamy OAL Harridge baseball has the boldest stampings of any 1930s era ball we have seen, and would graded a perfect 10 on their own. However, the 22 black fountain pen signatures (“8-9” a couple lesser) features a bold Babe Ruth anchoring the sweet spot, Vernon Gomez, Ben Chapman, Joe Sewell, Cy Perkins, Earl Combs, Eddie Farrell, Frank Crosetti, Cy Moore, Ed Wells, Bill Dickey, Arthur Fletcher, Walter Brown, Tony Lazzeri, Art Jorgens, Lyn Lary, Chas. Ruffing, Johnny Allen, Herb Pennock, Dan MacFayden, Myril Hoag and Lou Gehrig. Of the great players, a total of nine are enshrined in Cooperstown.
This ball contains a slight amount of foxing on the panel below the bold Ruth signature, and there is a white scuff to the right of one of the weight stamp. However, the presence of the highly desirable blue-and-red stitching supersedes any minor surface issues present. A tremendous team signed ball form Ruth’s last World Series championship. Full LOA form PSA/DNA, cert number S09735.