Did he or didn’t he?
Nearly 92 years after Babe Ruth blasted one of baseball’s most famous home runs, the debate about whether he stood in the batter’s box at Wrigley Field and predicted it continues. The mystery and mythology has helped make Ruth’s “called shot” against the Chicago Cubs in the World Series so fascinating. This summer, Heritage Auctions plans to auction the jersey it’s believed he was wearing during that famous moment on Oct. 1, 1932.
Now bearing what two companies indicate are photo matches to images from the time, the jersey could be the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold. Heritage has placed an eye-popping estimate of $30 million on the gray road flannel.
It’s not the first time the jersey has been sold. In 2005, it was consigned to Grey Flannel Auctions by the daughter of a golfing buddy of Ruth’s after being kept in a safe deposit box for decades. It sold then for $944,000. Ruth’s pants sold separately for just over $95,000.
Only recently were authenticators MeiGray and MEARS tasked with attempting to match the jersey to images of Ruth wearing it. The placement of buttons on the jersey, stains and other markings on it were favorable with photos of Ruth taken at the time.
In 2019, the jersey underwent some conservation work done by Textile Conservation Workshop, a non-profit entity that acts as a resource for museums, historic agencies and private individuals, where a tear was repaired. Otherwise, it remains original and matches the style worn by the Yankees in 1932.
The owner, who hasn’t yet been identified, has now decided to put it on the market.
“Ruth’s World Series jersey is the most significant piece of American sports memorabilia to be offered at auction in decades,” remarked Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Auctions at Heritage who believes “it will hold the record as the most expensive sports collectible ever to cross the auction block.”
For now, at least, that record belongs to another Yankees legend, Mickey Mantle, whose 1952 Topps card graded Mint+ 9.5 by SGC sold for $12.6 million at Heritage in August 2022.
The record for a Ruth jersey is $5.6 million, paid for a circa 1928-1930 model sold through Hunt Auctions during a special Ruth oriented sale conducted at Yankee Stadium in 2019.
Photo matches can be tricky, but can put bidding into overdrive as collectors feel comfortable with visual evidence that backs up the claim of game use. There was high confidence in the game-worn community that the jersey sold by Grey Flannel in 2005 may have been the Called Shot jersey but photos weren’t as readily available and matching techniques weren’t as advanced as they are today.
“MeiGray’s philosophy is every game-worn jersey is like a fingerprint,” MeiGray’s Barry Meisel told ESPN. “No two fingerprints are alike, we believe no two jerseys are alike when you look at the hand-stitching, the placement of names, numbers, letters on the shirt, where and how the buttons are attached. When you do forensic research with resources that are necessary, actual photos of the shirt, you can make the determinations that we made in this case with the Babe Ruth Called Shot jersey.”
Ruth’s homer against the Cubs at Wrigley Field was one of two he hit that day, with Cubs players and fans screaming insults each time he stepped to the plate in Game 3. Already trailing 2 games to none, Ruth homered off Charlie Root in the first inning. Then, with two strikes, he blasted what was at the time the longest homer ever hit at Wrigley, but not before making multiple gestures with his right hand. Most newspapers didn’t mention what happened when Ruth faced Root in the fifth inning, but one did. Joe Williams, then a sports editor for Scripps-Howard, recapped the moment by stating that Ruth had “pointed to center field and punched a screaming liner to a spot where no ball had been hit before.” The headline of the wire story read “Ruth Calls Shot As He Puts Home Run No. 2 in Side Pocket.” The story that appeared in the New York World-Telegram helped construct the “called shot” storyline.
Video that surfaced in 1994 finally offered visual evidence that Ruth did something with his hand while barking at the Cubs’ dugout. Did he make a bold gesture to the bleachers as had often been reported—and even discussed by the Babe himself? No. Still, the jawing from in the box waiting for a pitch—and then backing it up with a bomb—actually enhanced the legend. Ruth later played up the story in his own biography.
The Yankees won Game 3 by a 7-5 final and swept the Cubs out of the Series the next day.
Some significant witnesses were sitting in the Wrigley Field stands on Oct. 1, 1932, among them Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the New York governor days away from winning the White House, and future Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, then just a boy of 12. But they were just spectators. Others would step forward over the coming days and decades to tell a story that grew into the stuff of folklore.
The jersey will be part of a large summer auction set to conclude August 23-25. You can expect the Ruth jersey will be on display the National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland this summer.
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