Babe Ruth’s jersey record
Sports jersey auctioned for $24.1 million
26.08.2024, 08:15 a.m.
In the 1930s, Babe Ruth was the biggest baseball star, and one of the American’s jerseys was auctioned off for an incredible record price. The auction brought in $24.1 million. The head of the auction house compared the jersey to the Mona Lisa.
A jersey worn by US baseball legend Babe Ruth has been auctioned off at an online auction for a record price of $24.1 million (€21.5 million). This was announced by the auction house Heritage Auctions. The New York Yankees jersey is by far the most expensive sports collectible in the world. The previous record was set in 2022 at the auction of a trading card of former baseball star Mickey Mantle from 1952, which changed hands two years ago for $12.6 million.
Babe Ruth wore the jersey in a historic game against the Chicago Cubs in the final of the World Series in 1932. According to legend, he indicated the direction in which he then hit the ball before his home run. The scene became legendary as the “called shot.” That year, the icon won his last of a total of seven World Series titles in Major League Baseball (MLB).
When it was announced in May that the Ruth jersey would be auctioned, Chris Ivy, Heritage’s head of sports auctions, predicted it could fetch as much as $30 million. “This is basically the Mona Lisa. It’s a very mythical moment that permeates not only baseball history but American history and pop culture history,” Ivy said on ESPN. “We’re still talking about it 100 years later, and that’s one of the reasons I believe it’s the most significant piece of sports memorabilia in the world.”
Value of the jersey increased enormously
After his career ended, Ruth gave the jersey to a golf partner. Prior to Sunday’s auction, it had been resold three times, most recently in 2005 for $940,000. At the time, however, the jersey was associated only with the 1932 World Series and not directly with the famous episode in which Ruth aimed his bat at the outfield bleachers before hitting a home run into center field against Chicago Cubs pitcher Charlie Root. Several companies have since compared the jersey to the jersey Ruth wore during Game 3 of the Series at Wrigley Field, increasing the jersey’s value exponentially.
Ruth is one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He won three World Series with the Boston Red Sox before joining the New York Yankees at the end of the 1919 season and winning four more World Series. Ruth retired from baseball in 1935 and died in 1948 at the age of 53.
The first time a sporting goods item exceeded the $10 million mark at auction was in 2022, but it did so twice that year. In addition to the Mantle card, a jersey belonging to basketball star Michael Jordan ($10.1 million) also brought in such a high sum.