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1915 Babe Ruth Boston Red Sox Original News Photograph, PSA/DNA Type 1....
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Sold on Feb 26, 2022 for:
$22,200.00
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Description
Shot the day before his World Series debut!
1915 Babe Ruth Boston Red Sox Original News Photograph, PSA/DNA
Type 1. "Ruth made a grave mistake when he gave up pitching,"
Tris Speaker told reporters in 1921 during a discussion about his
former Red Sox teammate. "Working once a week, he might have lasted
a long time and become a great star." The pair would reunite in
1939 on the dais in Cooperstown as members of the inaugural class
of the Baseball Hall of Fame, where a jocular Ruth would have
certainly given Speaker a playful elbow to the ribs for the
comment.The offered photograph (5.5x2.25") dates to the first World Championship season that Ruth and Speaker would share, a marvelous image of the game's greatest figure trimmed down from a photograph that should be very familiar to the veteran Dead Ball Era photography collector. We sold an untrimmed example of that image two and a half years ago for $38,400, while another image captured by George Grantham Bain during the same photo shoot commanded $81,000 last November. We have been able to definitively date these images to October 7, 1915, the final game of the regular season that saw the BoSox drop a meaningless contest to the Yankees at the Polo Grounds the day before the start of the World Series. He'd pinch hit the next day in Game One of the 1915 World Series, his first taste of Fall Classic action.
We should stress that the trimming of this photo, and the large number "20" lightly inked at his knees, are typical of the editorial processes used by various publications in the days before digital image editing. Verso bears handwritten identifier of the subject, a partial "Underwood & Underwood" photo service stamp, and a "May 29, 1919" date stamp that suggests the image was used again at that time, perhaps when it was trimmed from its original 1915 condition. Certainly any such issues must be forgiven and forgotten in light of the elite rarity and desirability of BoSox-era Ruth photography. Encapsulated by PSA/DNA, Type 1.
Auction Info
2022 February 26 - 27 Winter Platinum Night Sports Auction #50052 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
February, 2022
26th-27th
Saturday-Sunday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 29
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 1,070
Buyer's Premium per Lot:
20% of the successful bid per lot.
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