He played alongside Babe Ruth in Baltimore, Boston and New York. He roomed with Ruth (until the toothbrush mishap) and they won two world championships together. He even famously took over the mound after Ruth's first-batter ejection, only to retire the next 26 batters straight for what many consider a legitimate perfect game. He was Ernie Shore. Here, the North Carolinian wears the pinstriped Red Sox threads of road games in 1916 and 1917. Distributed by Underwood & Underwood, the striking, well-focused portrait measures 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches and features wonderful compositional balance, plus exceptional black-white contrast. Ruth once said he thought Shore had the potential to be the "best pitcher in baseball." But after Ernie's WWI service, he never regained his pre-war prowess and was out of the game completely by 1922. 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.

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