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 Known as the "Sultan of Swat" during a storied Major League
Baseball career Ruth, who passed away in 1948, is now the King
of Memorabilia, with the ash bat the New York Yankees slugger
used on Aug. 11, 1929 to become the first player to hit 500
homers expected to fetch well over a million dollars.
For any serious collector, no showroom is complete without at
least one item connected to "the Babe."
Of the top 20 highest priced sports memorabilia items almost
half (nine) have the Ruth name attached to them.
In June, a Yankees jersey worn by Ruth went for $5.64 million,
making it the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever
sold, while the bat he used to slam the first ever home run at
Yankee Stadium sold in 2004 for $1.26 million.
Online bidding for the Louisville Slugger used to swat number
500 begins Nov. 27. By the time it closes on Dec. 14, it will
almost certainly find a spot in the top 10.
"We're estimating this at a million and up just to be
conservative," David Kohler, president of SCP Auctions, which
will conduct the sale, told Reuters. "We think it will surpass
the other bat. This 500 bat is kind of the brother to it."
"Even though he has been gone since 1948 he remains the King,"
Kohler said.
There is genuine excitement in the collector world as what is
known as "a fresh piece" makes its way to market.
Unlike some items that have changed hands several times, Ruth's
500th home run bat has spent decades out of sight in undisturbed
solitude.
Ruth gifted it some time in the mid-1940s to the mayor Suffern,
New York, Jim Rice, a golfing, bowling and drinking buddy of one
of baseball's original Hall of Famers.
For decades the historic bat leaned impassively in a corner of
the Rice family den, treated not as a piece of history but more
like a piece of furniture no different than the bookcase and
coffee table.
After Jim and then his wife passed away, the bat spent three
decades hidden in a closet in the home of their only son Terry.
The childhood joy Terry had reveled in from owning such a
sporting treasure has given way to dread, the bat too valuable
to display or even tell anyone about.
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"It just got to the point I couldn't leave it out," Rice told
Reuters. "I was less cautious years ago but more recently I hardly
told anybody.
"I just couldn't enjoy it, it was hidden away. My girlfriend was
afraid to have it here, that somebody would break in so we weren't
enjoying it.
"It just seemed time," he said.
'A PIECE OF HISTORY'
There are currently 27 members of the 500 home run club but Ruth,
who went on to slug 714 career homers, was the first.
All but eight are in baseball's Hall of Fame and most of those who
aren't, such as Barry Bonds, have had their careers tainted by what
is referred to as the 'steroid era.'
As much a piece of art as an historic artifact, Ruth's 500 bat has
been painstakingly authenticated by industry leaders PSA/DNA, who
have given it their highest grade.
Traced back to the manufacturer, the bat matches the model number,
size, weight and finish ordered by Ruth, and displays unique
characteristics such as a left-barrel contact area and cleat
impressions on the upper barrel.
Ruth had a habit of knocking the dirt out of his cleats with the
barrel of his bat, leaving small impressions on the barrel.
While it was hard to say goodbye, Rice and his two older sisters
decided it was time to sell.
"We grew up with it and it was just something that was always
there," said Rice. "I would take it out once in awhile and the day
they came to pick it up I took it out one more time.
"I was looking at it all morning and took pictures of it and you
look at it, it is very pretty," he said.
"It's a piece of history."
(Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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