A jersey belonging to legendary American baseball player Babe Ruth has set a new record as the most expensive sports memorabilia ever sold at auction, fetching a staggering $24.1 million. The auction, held by Heritage Auctions in Irving, Texas, began in July and culminated in a bidding war that lasted more than six hours on Sunday. The identity of the anonymous buyer remains undisclosed, according to Heritage Auctions.
In the early days of the auction, the coveted item broke records by attracting a bid of $13.3 million, with experts predicting that the final bid could exceed $30 million. The previous record for the most expensive sports item sold at auction was $12.6 million, paid for a baseball card featuring Mickey Mantle in August 2022. Until 2022, no sports memorabilia had ever surpassed the symbolic threshold of $10 million, but that year both the Mantle card and a jersey worn by basketball star Michael Jordan sold for more than this amount.
Chris Ivy, director of sports at Heritage Auctions, described the jersey as “the most significant piece of American sports memorabilia ever offered at auction.” He added that it was clear from the bidding that “serious collectors have no doubt about what this Ruth jersey is and what it represents.”
The record-setting jersey was worn by “The Bambino” during a historic game against the Chicago Cubs in the 1932 World Series. According to legend, during a moment now known as the “called shot,” Ruth pointed in the direction where he wanted the ball to go and then hit a home run exactly there. Ruth was booed by the opposing team, and he reportedly responded by pointing deep into center field before hitting the next pitch directly there for a home run. “It’s the most dramatic moment in World Series history, and it may be the most dramatic moment ever in all of baseball,” said Michael Gibbons, an emeritus director and historian at Babe Ruth’s birthplace and museum in Baltimore.
The Yankees won the game and the World Series in a count of four games, marking Ruth’s last championship victory of his career. According to Mike Provenzale, production manager for Heritage’s sports department, it was also Ruth’s final World Series, and the “called shot” was his last home run in a World Series.
Heritage Auctions reveals that Ruth gave his road jersey to one of his golf friends in Florida around 1940, and it remained in that family for decades. In the early 1990s, the daughter of that man sold the jersey to a collector, and it was subsequently auctioned in 2005 for $940,000 before remaining in a private collection until this year.