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Most of us have done it. Whether on the playground, at the park, an empty lot, or a local ball field.
We step up to the plate, adjust our stance in the box, and point toward the imaginary bleachers as the crowd roars.
Shot called!
Emulating the folklore-driven and arguably most iconic at-bat in MLB history—which became a part of the American baseball fabric—was a regular occurrence for millions.
George Herman Ruth—universally known as the “Babe” and considered by many to be the best baseball player who ever lived—is the subject of what has been perhaps the most recirculated sports-related anecdote ever.
Decades later, the chimerical tale of the “Called Shot” is still debated today.
The big news is, in just over 3 months, the legendary Ruth road-gray historic Yankees jersey will once again cross the auction block.
This time bidding will take place at Heritage Auctions from August 23rd-25th, 2024.
In what has been described as the most significant piece of memorabilia in United States sports history, the heavy wool, Babe Ruth-worn sweater is expected to crush previous records.
How the Yarn Got Legs
The details of exactly what went down that October 1st, 1932 day at Wrigley Field remains a tad murky.
ESPN’s Dan Hajducky put together a nice article (with the help of a Heritage press release) highlighting the inferable intrigue surrounding what would be Ruth’s last home run in a World Series.
As this iconic and amazing piece of sports memorabilia is about to change hands. Hajducky rewrote,
Joe Williams, then a sports editor for Scripps-Howard, recapped the moment for the evening papers: “In the fifth,” he wrote, “with the Cubs riding him unmercifully from the bench, Ruth pointed to center field and punched a screaming liner to a spot where no ball had been hit before.”
“Ruth Calls Shot As He Puts Home Run No. 2 In Side Pocket,” which is how the story appeared in the New York World-Telegram.
With the framework now in place, the illusion was about to become real.
“Interestingly, in the ensuing days, other writers began following his lead and started reporting that the Babe had called his shot,’’ Michael Gibbons, now director emeritus and history of the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum in Baltimore, once told the Hall of Fame.
“It kind of spread like wildfire after that.”
The Lou Gehrig Effect
A few days after the story began to go viral, fellow New York Yankee great Lou Gehrig appeared on a national radio show and helped cement the mythos of the Babe’s reputed plate appearance.
“He stands up there and tells the world he’s going to sock that next one — and not only that, but he tells the world right where he’s gonna sock it, into the center field stands,” Gehrig said.
“He called his shot and then made it. I ask you, what can you do with a guy like that?”
The Babe Speaks
The one missing element was for Babe Ruth himself to corroborate the popular tale.
In the 1948 book The Babe Ruth Story, Ruth said he was so agitated by heckles spouting from the opposing team’s dugout that he pointed toward center field before Cubs’ hurler Charlie Root had thrown a pitch, contrary to previous versions.
“I guess the smart thing for Charlie to have done on his third pitch would have been to waste one,” Ruth said in his book.
“While he was making up his mind to pitch to me I stepped back again and pointed my finger at those bleachers, which only caused the mob to howl that much more at me.”
“Root threw me a fastball. I swung from the ground with everything I had and as I hit the ball every muscle in my system, every sense I had, told me that I had never hit a better one, that as long as I lived nothing would ever feel as good as this.”
“I didn’t have to look. But I did. That ball just went on and on and on and hit far up in the center-field bleachers in exactly the spot I had pointed to.”
Ruth said he considered the home run “the most famous one I ever hit.”
New Information Has Come to Light
It’s been 19 years since the historic Yankees jersey was last offered for public sale. In that transaction, the jersey was purchased for $940,000 at Grey Flannel Auctions.
As Hajducky points out, “At that time, it was dated to the 1932 season and purported to be from that year’s series. But the jersey has now been photo-matched by MeiGray Authenticated as the one Ruth wore in Game 3.”
MeiGray is a full-service sports memorabilia/collectibles and auction site. Since the previous auction in 2005, additional measures of photo-matching authentication have been added to the mix.
Barry Meisel, MeiGray’s president and COO, said in addition to the photo-matching process, the firm researched how many jerseys the Yankees ordered around that time.
“The Yankees ordered three road grays and three home whites over an entire year and carried one over into the following year,” Meisel said.
“[With] the nuances Spalding put on its company tag, or in the collar of the shirt, you [can] start to determine [the year it was worn].”
“There were a couple of things that helped [this jersey] stand out from previous seasons,” said Jim Montague, MeiGray’s vice president of authentication.
“Photography from Game 3 of the 1932 World Series aligned with nuances of Ruth’s New York Yankees jersey.”
All parties involved now believe provenance has been established which exponentially increases potential value.
A New World Record is Imminent
Utilizing photo-matching procedures in recent years led to a Babe Ruth-used bat selling for a record $1.85 million in April 2023. This comes after bringing in $400,000 just 5 years earlier.
The current high-dollar figure for a sports collectible of any type is the $12.6 million a near-flawless Mickey Mantle card from 1952 commanded in August of 2022.
When it comes to sports memorabilia, a jersey Michael Jordan wore in Game 1 of the 1998 Finals (featured in “The Last Dance”) sold for a record $10.1 million in a September 2022 auction held at Sotheby’s.
According to Chris Ivy, Heritage Auctions’ director of sports auctions, the famous Ruth-worn historic Yankees jersey could “fetch upward of $30 million.”
Ivy called it a “one-of-a-kind item, the most significant sports collectible that’s ever come up for auction.” He said he wouldn’t be surprised if it exceeds $30 million.
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