Babe Ruth’s “called shot” lives as one of the most famous moments in the lengthy history of Major League Baseball and the jersey from the achievement shattered a record.
Heritage Auctions announced the jersey Ruth wore during the famous home run is the “most expensive sports collectible in the world.”
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The jersey sold for $24.12 million – topping the 1952 Mickey Mantle Topps card that sold for $12.6 million at a Heritage auction two years ago. The auction house said a bidding war went on until 4:30 a.m. CT.
Chris Ivy, Heritage’s director of sports, called the item “the most significant piece of American sports memorabilia ever offered at auction,” in a news release.
“t has been an honor and a privilege to work with this incredible piece of American history, and I am proud that it will now be part of one of the finest private collections in the world,” Ivy added. “It is clear by the strong auction participation and record price achieved that astute collectors have no doubt as to what this Ruth jersey is and what it represents. The legend of Babe Ruth and the myth and mystery surrounding his ‘called shot’ are united in this one extraordinary artifact.”
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Heritage said the buyer wanted to remain anonymous.
The legend of Ruth’s “called shot” came from Game 3 of the 1932 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs. Ruth was up at bat in the fifth inning while at Wrigley Field, and is said to have pointed toward the fences.
Ruth then hit a home run off of Charlie Root.
Heritgate said Ruth kept the jersey after he retired from baseball and later gifted it to a friend in Florida. The friend’s daughter kept it until the 1990s, when a sports memorabilia collector purchased it for a “six-figure sum.”
The jersey was then sold to an unknown collector and later co-signed to an auction in 2005 and sold for $940,000.
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