{"id":21863,"date":"2019-07-09T06:23:22","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T10:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/?p=21863"},"modified":"2025-09-16T10:57:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T14:57:50","slug":"babe-ruth-jersey-record-sports-memorabilia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2019\/07\/09\/babe-ruth-jersey-record-sports-memorabilia\/","title":{"rendered":"When a Babe Ruth Jersey Broke Record for Most Expensive Piece of Sports Memorabilia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proving that he remains the biggest name in sports, a game-worn Babe Ruth jersey sold for a record-setting $5.64 million in 2019. The Babe\u2019s <a href=\"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/mlb-teams\/new-york-yankees\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Yankees<\/a> uniform, dating to 1928-30,\u00a0 was offered in an auction of items personally belonging to the slugger. The provenance of this item was likely an important contributing factor in the realization of its final sale price.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The previous record holder for the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia was also a Babe Ruth Yankees jersey. The now second place jersey was from the 1920 season and sold for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/7953437\/babe-ruth-jersey-sells-record-44-million\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$4.4 million in 2012.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Also Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/09\/most-expensive-baseball-cards-ever-sold\/\" target=\"_self\">The Most Expensive Baseball Cards Ever Sold<\/a><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Babe Ruth Jersey<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The jersey is one of six known of its kind, a road-gray of the late \u201820s. This style of jersey lacks the renowned Yankee pinstripes. The jersey has \u201cYANKEES\u201d spelled out on the front. As well, although there is evidence of Ruth\u2019s \u201c3\u201d having been on the jersey\u2019s back, it has since gone missing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The auction was held at Yankee Stadium and included hundreds of items previously owned by Ruth. In addition to the memorabilia, items such as cards, contracts, and a checkbook crossed the auction block.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition to this record, many other Ruth pieces hold expensive distinctions. A Ruth World Series ring holds the record for the most expensive championship ring. As well, one of his caps and one of his hats also are the most expensive of their kind, respectively.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Also Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/13\/expensive-baseball-card-box-sets\/\" target=\"_self\">The Most Expensive Baseball Card Box Sets<\/a><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Babe Ruth &#8211; The Legend<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Originally a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, Babe Ruth is best remembered today as a slugger for the New York Yankees. In a career that stretched from 1914-1935, Ruth won the World Series three times with the Red Sox before winning it four times with the Yankees. Ruth led the league in home runs 12 times. As well, Ruth compiled a 94-46 record as a left-handed pitcher before moving to the outfield.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ruth\u2019s career culminated in his introduction into the Baseball Hall of Fame\u2019s inaugural class. Ruth died at age 53 of nasopharyngeal cancer in 1948. His birthplace has since been turned into a museum and is situated only three blocks west of Baltimore\u2019s Camden Yards.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Also Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/20\/toughest-mlb-suspensions-baseball-history\/\" target=\"_self\">Toughest MLB Suspensions in Baseball History<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Proving that he remains the biggest name in sports, a game-worn Babe Ruth jersey sold for a record-setting $5.64 million in 2019. The Babe\u2019s New York Yankees uniform, dating to 1928-30,\u00a0 was offered in an auction of items personally belonging to the slugger. The provenance of this item was likely an important contributing factor in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2889,"featured_media":74032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4454,29142],"tags":[1231,2450,2847],"class_list":["post-21863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yankees","category-baseball-history","category-fan-culture","tag-babe-ruth","tag-baseball-memorabilia","tag-jersey"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2889"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107200,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21863\/revisions\/107200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}