Circa 1915 Babe Ruth Rookie-Era Real Photo Postcard, SGC 60 EX 5....

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One of just two known examples!

Circa 1915 Babe Ruth Rookie-Era Real Photo Postcard, SGC 60 EX 5. This is one of three Babe Ruth real photo postcards presented within this Platinum Night auction, each an extraordinary rarity that first appeared on the auction block in 2006 as part of a nine-subject lot capturing the spring training preparations of the Boston Red Sox at Whittington Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It's a site that contributed an early chapter to the lore of the Babe as the consummate long ball artist when, in 1918, he delivered what was called the first 500+ foot drive--573 feet, to be precise--into the lethal waters of the Arkansas Alligator Farm far beyond the outfield fence.

We can be assured of a date range between 1915 (Ruth's first Red Sox spring training) and 1917 (as catcher Forrest "Hick" Cady appears in one Ruth image, and Cady was traded in January 1918 to the Philadelphia Athletics), but the uniform style remained consistent throughout those three years, so that data provides no further assistance. We're inclined to agree with the experts at SGC, who likely depended upon Ruth's very youthful appearance to assign a "Circa 1915" date to the title on the slab.

Each sepia-toned postcard measures a standard 3.25x5.5" in size and bears no handwriting on back or front. The "AZO" text and four upward-pointing triangles that frame the words "Place Stamp Here" on verso is a postcard format used between 1904 and 1918. But, of course, it is the obverse of the subject postcards that carry the lion's share of intrigue, establishing each among the rarest Babe Ruth cardboard commemoratives on the planet. The relatively casual manner of photography (compared, for example, to the 1915 Boston Red Sox real photo postcards that have commanded prices north of $500,000) would suggest that the images were snapped and produced by an Arkansas native for sale to spring training fans, a theory supported by the tremendous rarity.

We should emphasize that each of these postcards is the technical equivalent of a "Type 1" photograph--printed from the original negative within two years of the event pictured--but PSA/DNA will not assign that language to any photograph with a postcard back.

This variant finds Ruth taking a break from a pitching warm-up, the Arkansas clay beneath his feet churned by his spikes. It stands as the finer of two examples in the SGC population, and Heritage is aware of no other representations inside or outside any other grading service's census. Encapsulated by SGC 60 EX 5.