Babe Ruth Jersey Could Fetch Record Amount

In 2007, a T-206 Honus Wagner tobacco baseball card sold for $2.8 million at auction. Experts predict that Babe Ruth’s jersey will smash that record when it goes up for auction next month.

David Kohler, president of SCP Auctions, said:

“This is simply the finest sports artifact we’ve handled in our 30-year history. The historical impact of Ruth’s emergence in the Big Apple in the early 1920s, combined with the jersey’s superb original condition, makes this a sports treasure of the highest order.”

Yahoo! Sports reports that the 92-year-old professional grade wool flannel jersey was made around 1920. “Splading” is stitched into the collar alongside the name “G.H. Ruth.” Sports experts believe that the jersey was worn by George Herman Ruth during the 1920 season, his first year with the New York Yankees.

Ruth became the first person in baseball history to hit more than 50 home runs that year (smashing his record of 29 the year prior) and helped the Yankees bring in record crowds to the Polo Grounds.

Sports memorabilia auctions can bring big wallets to the table, especially when they involve Babe Ruth. The bat Ruth used to hit a homer during the first game at Yankee stadium in 1923 sold for $1.3 million in 2006 and in 2005, his original contract with the New York Yankees was sold for close to $1 million. Babe Ruth’s jersey is expected to be the most expensive piece of baseball memorabilia ever sold at auction.

SCP Auctions Managing Director Dan Imler said:

“It has a definite aura about it. It is hard to put a value on an item of such singular importance. Ruth was a man of mythic proportions. More than any other man, he transcended sports, achieving a nearly unrivaled status as an American icon. In the process, he changed the game of baseball forever. To think this jersey was worn by him during the most pivotal years of his career, and arguably the most consequential years in baseball history, makes this one of the finest sports artifacts we’ll see in our lifetime.”

If you have a few million to spend you can bid on Babe Ruth’s jersey beginning on April 30th at SCP Auctions.