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1922 Babe Ruth Game Used & Signed Bat, PSA/DNA GU 9.5.. ...
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Sold on Aug 18, 2018 for:
$180,000.00
Bid Source: Internet bidder
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Description
A massive forty-four-ounce war club!
1922 Babe Ruth Game Used & Signed Bat, PSA/DNA GU 9.5.The year 1922 had been a tumultuous one for the superstar slugger, whose poor behavior had kept the Babe in the scandal rags, and out of the line-up, far more than a man earning over three times as much as his next biggest player's salary should be. After missing six weeks at the beginning of the season due to Judge Landis' suspension for barnstorming infractions, Ruth went just five days before being stripped of his captain's stripes for throwing dirt at an umpire and then directing a vulgar gesture at a heckler in the stands. In mid-June, he was tossed twice on consecutive days. By August, Ruth had been suspended by the League five times. Yankees team owner Jacob Ruppert labored hard to rein in his expensive superstar's self-destructive habits, receiving in response one of the Babe's more memorable lines:
"I'll promise to go easier on drinking and to get to bed earlier, but not for you, fifty thousand dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will I give up women. They're too much fun."
In the midst of this turmoil surrounding the game's headline attraction, a new baseball palace slowly began to rise from a former lumberyard just across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds where the Yankees shared an uneasy cohabitation with the New York Giants. It was a period of great upheaval for a team on the brink of an unprecedented era of glory.
Though the Yankees would fall yet again to their landlords in the 1922 World Series, Babe Ruth remained the game's most electrifying figure throughout his 110 games of 1922 action, leading the American League with a .672 slugging percentage and sending thirty-five souvenirs into the outfield bleachers. It's clear that this gargantuan thunder-stick was responsible for a considerable degree of those power numbers, its game use characterized as "outstanding" by the experts at PSA/DNA.
They reference ball marks on left and back barrel--correct for Ruth's label-down swing--grain checking, cleat marks and two colors of bat rack paint streaks. Handle is miraculously uncracked. The thirty-six inch (35.875"), forty-four ounce (44 oz.) weight and various caliper readings assign this Hillerich & Bradsby dash-dot-dash to a Ruth model alternately identified as "His #1" and "R2" on his personal bat ordering record (PBOR).
While the massive dimensions and exceptional game use are more than enough to thrill the cultured collector, a final point of intrigue appears in light but legible black fountain pen ink on the back barrel, an inscription reading, "To King [faded], Best Wishes, Babe Ruth."
In effectively every substantive metric, this is an elite example of the hobby's most important tool, one of the finest early-career Ruth gamers in private hands. LOA from PSA/DNA, GU 9.5. Full LOA from PSA/DNA (autograph).
Auction Info
2018 August 18-19 Summer Platinum Night Sports Collectibles Auction #50005 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
August, 2018
18th-19th
Saturday-Sunday
Internet/Mail Bids: 23
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 4,650
Buyer's Premium per Lot:
20% of the successful bid per lot.
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