LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2006 October Signature Sports Auction #705  / 

19874

1928 Babe Ruth 470th Career Home Run Baseball, Signed

Currency:USD Category:Sports - Cards & Fan Shop / Sports - Game Used Memorabilia Start Price:8,000.00 USD Estimated At:20,000.00 - 30,000.00 USD
1928 Babe Ruth 470th Career Home Run Baseball, Signed
<B>1928 Babe Ruth 470th Career Home Run Baseball, Signed.</B></I> Those who followed our previous Signature auction in May 2006 will almost certainly recall the sale of the baseball swatted by the Sultan for his first of fifty-four home runs in 1928. Here we provide the perfect bookend to that important sphere--the baseball that Ruth hit for the last home run of the 1928 season! Yes, indeed, this OAL (Barnard) ball is the very one that baseball's greatest star smacked for number fifty-four of the Championship '28 season, offered here for the first time to the collecting public.<BR><BR> On Sunday, September 30, 1928, a groundskeeper at Detroit's Navin Field named John Teubert was joined at the ballpark by his eighteen-year old son Jack W. Teubert. While his father tended to his duties, Jack sat in the outfield bleachers to watch the game. During the top of the fifth inning, the great Babe Ruth came to the plate against Detroit's hard throwing rookie right hander Vic Sorrell. The Babe has already taken young Sorrell deep just three days prior in this four game series at Navin. With Cedric Durst on first base, Sorrell delivered a pitch that Ruth sent into the stands, and into the hands of young Jack Teubert. Following the game, Jack's father took him into the visitor's locker room and had the ball signed by the Babe. Jack held onto the ball for over sixty-five years before passing it on to a family friend shortly before his death. A letter from this family friend is included in the lot.<BR><BR> Now close to eighty years later, the sweet spot signature on this important orb retains a boldness of 7/10 despite a degree of surface scuffing. But even more impressive to the solid provenance of the piece is the ancient notation just to the left of the signature that reads, "9-30-28, NAVIN FIELD." Our authenticators verify that this notation has been there for decades, leaving no doubt as to the legitimacy of this important Ruth home run ball.<BR><BR> While the Babe didn't invent the home run, he came to define it, and still does to this day. With Mark McGwire's seventieth home run ball of 1998 selling for $3 million, and Barry Bonds' 715th recently realizing better than $200,000, it's clear that fans still love the long ball. And remember, while this ball didn't set an unbeaten mark, it was, for the months between September 30, 1928 and the Babe's first homer of the 1929 season, the record ball for career home runs. And we'd rather have a Ruth home run record ball than a Bonds or McGwire any day of the week. <I>LOA from PSA/DNA.</B></I>
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