DALLAS — Almost a century later Darling Ruth struck during the 1932 World Series, the jersey the New York Yankees wore when he hit a home run to center field could fetch as much as $30 million at auction.
Heritage Auctions will offer the jersey on Saturday evening in Dallas.
Ruth’s famous, talked about and oft-imitated “called shot” came when the Yankees and Chicago Cubs faced off in Game 3 of the World Series at Chicago’s Wrigley Field on October 1, 1932. In the fifth inning, Ruth made a pointing gesture while at bat and then hit the home run against Cubs pitcher Charlie Root.
The Yankees won the game 7–5 and defeated the Cubs the next day to win the series.
That was Ruth’s last World Series, and the “whistled shot” was his last home run in a World Series, said Mike Provenzale, Heritage’s sports department production manager.
“If you can connect an item like that to an important person and their most important moment, that’s what collectors are really looking for,” Provenzale said.
Heritage said Ruth gave the road uniform to one of his golf buddies in Florida around 1940, and it stayed 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 that buyer deeded it to Heritage this year.
In 2019, one of Ruth’s away shirts from 1928-30 sold for $5.64 million in an auction held at Yankee Stadium. That jersey was part of a collection of items Ruth’s family had put up for sale.
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Associated Press video journalist Kendria LaFleur contributed to this report.