No other sports organization celebrates the history of its team better than the New York Yankees. 

      When Babe Ruth was in his last few months of life, the New York Yankees were preparing for several different events. First, they were preparing the Stadium for Babe Ruth Day on June 13, 1948, the day the Bambino would stand on the Yankee Stadium field one final time. Also known as Silver Anniversary Day, the organization brought together the entire 1923 New York Yankee squad, the World Series Championship team (the first ever Yankees World Series title!) which opened The House that Ruth Built a quarter century earlier. They were there to celebrate the Stadium and the man who made it the most recognizable sports venue of all time. On this overcast day, spirits were high as the Babe was introduced and walked out on the field. And the Babe provided another great show for HIS fans. He heard the roar of the crowd, doffed his cap, waving to the faithful Yankee fans and stepped into the batter’s box he visited thousands of times…for one final “turn at bat”. 

      Second, the Yankee organization began to accumulate memorabilia from Babe Ruth’s Yankee career; collecting photos, clipping newspaper columns, garnering letters of well-wishes from numerous long time friends of Ruth and high rankings baseball people. All these photographs, letters, articles, and press materials were used to produce an extraordinary gift of respect, a 19 x 23 inch album title “BABE RUTH LIFETIME OF PICTURES AND LETTERS” and was presented by the New York Yankee organization after The Babe passed to Claire Ruth, the Babe’s widow. 

      This album is impressive in every way, a tremendous undertaking by a great organization and was treasured by Claire Ruth for decades before the ultimate New York Yankee and Babe Ruth collector, Barry Halper, acquired it many years later. The 80 page album was originally sold at auction in 1999 during Sotheby’s famous Barry Halper Collection auction. 

      Offered here is one of two items in this auction which was part of that album. This very large 11 x 14 inch signed image of Ruth (which we feel is the most impressive part of the entire album) contains the most bold, black fountain pen signature we have ever seen. Reading “With best wishes From Babe Ruth”, this signature grades a perfect (“10/10”). The image depicts Ruth near the end of his career, apparently looking towards the future. Since the photo has been housed and protected within the album for decades, it remains in tremendous condition with very little wear to the front surface. However, the reverse exhibits some slight paper loss as the photo was house via corner album tabs, but also glued in one location, and some light paper loss was created upon removal. 

      This is the first time we have ever seen this image, which is affixed with the boldest Babe Ruth signature we have ever observed. This signed photo is possibly the largest single-signed Ruth signed photo extant. 

      Deriving from the personal scrapbook presented to Mrs. Babe Ruth after he passed, this signed Ruth photo is arguably the greatest Babe Ruth signed photograph ever presented at auction, and we at Goldin Auctions are proud to be offering this historic Babe Ruth signed photograph at one time personally cherished by his widow.  This comes with a full LOA from PSA/DNA which graded the signature as GEM MINT 10. 

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