In Babe Ruth’s final season with the New York Yankees the 1934 club was past its Dynasty days prime but still featured some of the franchise’s most famous faces including Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig, Red Ruffing, Lefty Gomez and Tony Lazzeri whose signatures all appear on this ball along with Ruth who of course occupies the sweet spot. Ruth hit 22 home runs in 1934 giving him a total of 659 as a Yankee and drove in 84 runs but the writing was on the wall as his .288 average was a career low. Ruth agreed to take a dramatic cut in pay for the 1934 season signing for $35,000 almost $20,000 less than the $52,000 he received in 1933 but with the provision that he would receive 25% of the net receipts from exhibition games played during the regular season. While his skills may have been in decline his drawing power was intact. Gehrig was still just 31 years old and captured the AL Triple Crown in 1934 leading the league with 49 HRs, 166 RBI and a .363 batting average but was just five years in front of the tragic demise if his career.

In his fourth full season with the Yankees Left Gomez led the AL with 26 wins and 2.33 ERA while Red Ruffing’s 19 wins were the second most on the squad. Tony Lazzeri, suffered through an injury riddled campaign hitting .267 in 123 games but would rebound nicely and play with the club for three more years. This Official Will Harridge American League Ball with red stitching (1934-1939) contains 20 signatures in all including Samuel Byrd, Danny MacFayden, Don Heffner, Johnny Allen, Zack Taylor, Johnny Murphy, Johnny Broaca, Frank Crosetti, Floyd Newkirk, Jack Saltzgaver, Ben Chapman, Arndt Jorgens, Lyn Larry, and a Myril Hoag clubhouse signature. All of the signatures are in steel tip fountain pen and have faded. The ball exhibits expected toning for its age and comes with a LOA from JSA (X77437) and a LOA from PSA/DNA (AE71425). Please note that JSA only deemed the Myrl Hoag signature a clubhouse, while PSA/DNA determined that Hoag and Lefty Gomez were clubhouse signature.

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