LOT #80010 |
Sold on Aug 19, 2023 for: Sign-in
or Join (free & quick)
1916 M101-4 The Sporting News Babe Ruth Rookie #151 PSA VG+ 3.5....
Click the image to load the highest resolution version.
Sold on Aug 19, 2023 for:
$528,000.00
Bid Source: Internet bidder
Get one of these:
Explore Available Items
Description
The prettiest Ruth rookie on the lower half of the PSA grading scale!
1916 M101-4 The Sporting News Babe Ruth Rookie #151 PSA VG+
3.5. "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.This monumentally important trading card finds the southpaw pitcher just a few years removed from his departure from a Baltimore orphanage where he had been taught the finer points of the game by a baseball-loving priest. Assuming the card was released at the start of the 1916 Major League season, it would have found the twenty-one year old rookie just forty-seven games and four home runs into a career that would make him the most famous human being on the planet. The Boston Red Sox franchise he represents upon this storied rarity would repeat as World Champions in 1916 to claim their fourth of five titles before the Curse of the Bambino cast the franchise into eighty-six years of painful drought.
The 1920 departure for the Big Apple would slam the door on the Dead Ball Era and ultimately redefine the Babe as the game's premier offensive force, and the New York Yankees as the most successful franchise in the history of our national pastime. So, in terms of the tectonic shifts in the sport's landscape that would follow the production of this humble slab of cardboard, there's arguably no entry in The Standard Catalog of greater significance.
If you're looking at this card's remarkably sharp corners and strong centering and wondering why it's not several rungs higher on the PSA grading ladder, you're not the first of the bewildered. But close inspection reveals the culprit--it appears that something was placed upon the sheet from which this card was cut before the gloss was entirely dry, leaving a barely visible shadow that is only apparent at a precise angle to the light. If there was ever a card that presents far better than its technical grade, this is it. Graded PSA VG+ 3.5.
View Certification and Population Details from PSA
Auction Info
2023 August 19 - 20 Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction #50063 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
August, 2023
19th-20th
Saturday-Sunday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 39
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 2,822
Buyer's Premium per Lot:
20% of the successful bid per lot.
Shipping, Taxes, Terms and Bidding
Terms and Conditions | Bidding Guidelines and Bid Increments | Glossary of Terms | Sports Collectible Grading Tutorial
Important information concerning Sales Tax and Resale Certificates. Learn More
Terms and Conditions | Bidding Guidelines and Bid Increments | Glossary of Terms | Sports Collectible Grading Tutorial