Everyone knows the classic picture of the 11 living Cooperstown inductees at the Hall of Fame's 1939 Grand Opening and Induction Ceremony. Far less photographed was that day's 1st Annual Hall of Fame Game, which featured current and former Major Leaguers playing under honorary managers Honus Wagner and Eddie Collins. Ruth, Gehringer, Grove, Medwick and Vaughan helped propel Wagner's squad to a 4-2 victory. We've never seen this particular pre-game photo before, with Ruth (in his 1934 Tour of Japan uniform!), Mack and Speaker sharing an enjoyable moment together while addressing the crowd. The 7 1/4 x 9 inch piece carries an Acme Newspictures stamping on the reverse. Acme's paper caption is present though detached.

     Provenance: This lot originates from the "Babe Ruth Farewell Album" that was prepared by the Yankees franchise upon Ruth's death and gifted to his widow Claire, then eventually acquired by Barry Halper and presented in Sotheby's 1999 Halper Auction. The 80-page scrapbook featured photos, news clippings and various well-wishing letters from fellow ballplayers. Each photo reverse exhibits related mounting remnants/wear that in some cases shows through to the front side. This photograph has been classified as Type I by PSA/DNA.

Please note: Due to their routine newsroom usage for publication purposes, all news-service photos generally bear varying degrees of handling wear (creasing, crazing, chipping, etc.) and editorial marks (outlining, cropping, highlighting, background masking, etc.). Goldin Auctions will be donating 5% of the winning bid price of this lot and all lots in this auction to the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum.

Auction Notepad