Babe Ruth’s ‘Called Shot’ jersey receives $24 million

DALLAS — The jersey Babe Ruth wore when he took his first swing during the 1932 World Series, hitting a home run to center field, sold at auction early Sunday for more than $24 million.

Heritage Auctions said the New York Yankees slugger’s jersey sold for a record $24.12 million after a bidding war that lasted more than six hours when it went on sale in Dallas. The buyer wishes to remain anonymous, Heritage said.

The amount the jersey sold for surpassed the 1952 rookie card of fellow Yankee Mickey Mantle, which the Dallas-based auction house sold for $12.6 million in 2022.

Heritage sports director Chris Ivy says the jersey is “the most significant piece of American sports memorabilia ever to come to auction.” In a press release, he said that judging by the bidding, “astute collectors have no doubt about what this Ruth jersey is and what it represents.”

“The legend of Babe Ruth and the myth and mystery surrounding his ‘sure shot’ come together in this extraordinary artifact,” Ivy said.

Ruth’s famous, debated, and oft-imitated “called shot” came when the Yankees and Chicago Cubs met in Game 3 of the World Series at Chicago’s Wrigley Field on October 1, 1932. In the fifth inning of the heated game, Ruth made a pointing gesture while at bat and then hit the home run off Cubs pitcher Charlie Root.

“It’s the most dramatic moment in World Series history, and it may be the most dramatic moment in all of baseball,” said Michael Gibbons, director emeritus and historian of the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore.

The Yankees won the game 7-5 and swept the Cubs the next day to win the series.

That was Ruth’s last World Series, and the called shot was his last home run in a World Series, said Mike Provenzale, production manager for Heritage’s sports department.

“When you can link an item like that to an important figure and their most important moment, that’s what collectors are really looking for,” Provenzale said.

Heritage said Ruth gave the road jersey to one of his golfing buddies in Florida around 1940 and it remained in that family for decades. Then, in the early 1990s, that man’s daughter sold it to a collector. It then sold at auction in 2005 for $940,000 and remained in a private collection until it was consigned to Heritage this year.

There has been debate for decades about whether Ruth actually gave the command. But Gibbons said there is home footage from the game that shows Ruth pointing, though it’s unclear whether he’s pointing at the pitcher, center field or toward the Cubs’ bench. Regardless, he said, Ruth, who had a history of making predictions, clearly “said something was going to happen on the next pitch and made it happen.” And, he said, Ruth himself said he had given the command.

“We think he was certainly right,” Gibbons said.

News footage shows Ruth rounding the bases after the homer and making a pushing gesture toward the Cubs bench, as if to say “I got you,” Gibbons said.

The “called shot” was an extraordinary moment from a man Gibbons called “the standard-bearer for all of Major League Baseball.”

“He was always an encouraging person, he was a very positive thing for this country,” Gibbons said. “And then he capped it all off with his decisions.”