1946-47 Babe Ruth Single Signed Baseball....

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1946-47 Babe Ruth Single Signed Baseball. The specific stamping format of this OAL (Harridge) baseball dates to the closing years of Babe Ruth's life, a period that saw the generous Bambino maintain his service to the sport and the youth who idolized him as his terminal cancer marched relentlessly toward its conclusion. For all of his heroics on the field of play, one could make a convincing argument that, like Lou Gehrig before him, it was in his final years that Ruth most authentically earned his status as sports hero.

Most of the finest Ruth singles in the hobby derive from these difficult final years as the Babe navigated an ever-increasing obstacle course of hospital visits between public appearances at banquets and ballparks, preaching the gospel of our National Pastime to all who would listen. Only in his very last days would Ruth abandon his quest to bring joy and inspiration to children through the sport that had defined him, surrendering to mortality, and to immortality.

There is not the slightest hint of Ruth's inexorable decline in the blue fountain pen sweet spot autograph here, the confident script as smoothly rendered as any in his decades atop the sporting pantheon. A slight brush of Ruth's hand when the ink was still wet affects the final letters of his name, to little ill effect. In the absence of this minor stumble, we'd rank this among the finest Ruth's on horsehide. Full LOA from PSA/DNA.