Ruth wore a “Called Shot” shirt during the historic game against the Chicago Cubs in the final World Series in 1932.
A shirt belonging to American baseball legend Babe Ruth has sold for $24.1 million after a multi-week auction, breaking the record for the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold at auction.
An online auction for his New York Yankees jersey began in July and culminated in a bidding war that lasted more than six hours on Sunday, according to Heritage Auctions of Irving, Texas. Heritage said the buyer wished to remain anonymous.
In its first few days at auction, the prized piece broke records by attracting bids of $13.3 million, and experts expect it to sell for more than $30 million.
The previous record for sports merchandise sold at auction was $12.6 million paid in August 2022 for a Mickey Mantle baseball card.
Until 2022, no piece of sports memorabilia had ever broken the iconic $10 million mark, but that year both a Mantle card and a shirt worn by basketball great Michael Jordan crossed that threshold.
After a national tour, a return visit to Wrigley Field and tonight’s marathon bidding that lasted more than six hours, Babe Ruth’s “Cold Shot” jersey sold for $24.12 million, making it the most valuable piece of sports memorabilia in the world. pic.twitter.com/EuHKB3KicP
— Heritage Auction Sports (@Heritage_Sport) August 25, 2024
Heritage athletic director Chris Ivey called the jersey “the most significant piece of American sports memorabilia ever offered at auction,” and said in a news release that the bidding results made it clear “smart collectors have no doubt about what this Ruth jersey is and what it represents.”
“The legend of Babe Ruth and the myth and mystery surrounding his ‘Called Shot’ are all combined in this special artifact,” Ivey said.
“The Bambino,” one of Ruth’s nicknames, wore the record-breaking shirt during the historic game against the Chicago Cubs in the 1932 World Series.
The famous “Cold Shot” story is of Ruth pointing where he wanted the ball to be hit and hitting a home run in that exact direction.
When he was heckled by the opposing team, Ruth reportedly responded by pointing to the back of the center field stands, then hitting the next ball precisely in that direction for a home run.
“This is the most dramatic moment in World Series history, maybe the most dramatic moment in baseball history,” said Michael Gibbons, historian and director emeritus of the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore.
The Yankees then won four straight games to win the World Series, Ruth’s final championship.
Mike Provenzale, Heritage’s sports production manager, said it was Ruth’s final World Series and that “called shot” was his final home run in a World Series.
“When you can connect those objects to important people and their most important moments, that’s what collectors are really looking for,” Provenzar said.
According to Heritage, Ruth gave the shirt to one of his Florida golfing buddies around 1940, and it remained in his family for decades. The man’s daughter then sold it to a collector in the early 1990s. It then sold at auction in 2005 for $940,000 and remained in a private collection until it was consigned to Heritage this year.
Babe Ruth is considered to be the greatest baseball player of all time. [File: Tom Sande/AP]
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