The jersey Babe Ruth wore when he hit his famous “called shot” home run in 1932 World Series sold for a record $24.12 million on Saturday night in Dallas. That sale set the auction record for most expensive sports collectible ever sold.
The size 46 Yankees No. 3 road jersey was available to the public for the first time in 19 years. The sale price included the standard 20% buyer’s premium.
The iconic blast in which Ruth made a pointing gesture while at bat and then hit the home run into center field came in the fifth inning of Game 3 and is one of the most celebrated moments in baseball history.
The previous record piece for the most expensive sports collectible was a Topps rare mint Mickey Mantle card which sold for $12.6 million in August 2022. A month after that, Michael Jordan’s “Last Dance” Chicago Bulls jersey from Game 3 of the 1998 NBA Finals sold for $10.1 million.
The identity of the buyer is not revealed to the public. According to Heritage Auctions, the person won in a bidding war that started late Saturday night and stretched into early Sunday morning.
The $24 million fetched at the Heritage’s Summer Platinum Sports auction is a far cry from $940,000. That’s how much the same jersey sold for in 2005. But that was when the jersey was linked to the 1932 World Series inconclusively before more recent photo matching techniques confirmed it was indeed the threads Ruth wore when he “called shot” against Chicago Cubs pitcher Charlie Root. The Yankees won that game 7-5 and swept the Cubs that series (4-0).
Heritage Auctions director of sports auctions Chris Ivy previously called the jersey the “Mona Lisa” of sports memorabilia due to its link to such a historic game and mythical performance by Ruth, who had two home runs in the game. Ivy projected the piece could fetch $30 million. Barry Meisel, president and COO of authenticator MeiGray Authenticated, said that jersey may be the most important sports relic not just in American history but world history.
It came from Ruth’s last postseason home run in his final World Series appearance. He retired in 1935 and died in 1948.
