DALLAS– Nearly a century after Babe Ruth called his shot in the 1932 World Series, the jersey the New York Yankees slugger wore when he hit the home run to center field could sell at auction for as much as $30 million.
Heritage Auctions is offering the jersey Saturday night in Dallas.
Ruth’s famous, controversial and often imitated “home run” occurred as the Yankees and Chicago Cubs faced off in Game 3 of the World Series at Wrigley Field in Chicago on October 1, 1932. In the fifth inning, Ruth made a pointing gesture while batting, then hit the home run off Cubs pitcher Charlie Root.
The Yankees won the game 7-5 and swept the Cubs the next day to win the series.
It was Ruth’s final World Series, and the “called play” was his final home run in a World Series, said Mike Provenzale, Heritage’s sports production manager.
“When you can tie an object like that to an important person and their most important moment, that’s what collectors are really looking for,” Provenzale said.
According to Heritage, Ruth gave the golf jersey to a golfing friend in Florida around 1940, and it remained in that family for decades. Then, in the early 1990s, the man’s daughter sold it to a collector. It was later sold at auction in 2005 for $940,000, and that buyer consigned it to Heritage this year.
In 2019, one of Ruth’s away jerseys from 1928-30 sold for $5.64 million at an auction held at Yankee Stadium. The jersey was part of a collection of items that Ruth’s family had put up for sale.
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Associated Press video journalist Kendria LaFleur contributed to this report.
