Babe Ruth baseball jersey shatters sports memorabilia auction record
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
Legendary New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth in a photo dated circa 1920.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
NEW YORK – A jersey belonging to United States baseball legend Babe Ruth shattered the record for the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever auctioned, fetching US$24.1 million (S$31.4 million) on Aug 25.
The online auction for the New York Yankees jersey lasted several weeks, and it was expected to best the previous record: US$12.6 million paid in August 2022 for a baseball card for Mickey Mantle.
Until 2022, no piece of sports memorabilia had ever broken the symbolic US$10 million mark, but that year saw both the Mantle card and a jersey worn by basketball great Michael Jordan blow past the threshold. Jordan’s jersey from the 1998 National Basketball Association Finals sold for US$10.1 million.
The Bambino – one of Ruth’s monikers – wore the record-breaking jersey during a historic game against the Chicago Cubs in the 1932 World Series.
Ruth was being heckled by the opposition, and he reportedly responded by pointing deep into the center-field stands, before pounding the next pitch exactly in that direction for a home run.
The Yankees went on to win the game and the World Series 4-0, the seventh and final championship triumph of Ruth’s career.
“If this was a piece of art, this would be like buying the Mona Lisa,” Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions at Heritage Auctions, said.
“We know that he pointed, but we don’t know if he was pointing to the pitcher, if he was pointing towards the Cubs players in the dugout, or if he was calling his shot. But that mystery is why we’re still talking about it almost 100 years later.”
Ruth, widely regarded as the best baseball player of all time, retired in 1935, and years after his retirement, he donated the jersey to a golf partner. It was subsequently sold three times, most recently in 2005 for US$940,000. AFP, REUTERS
