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- Over a dozen documents related to the sale of Babe Ruth from the Red Sox to the Yankees were recently auctioned.
- The collection of documents sold for more than $300,000 combined.
- At another recent auction, a Ruth bat sold for nearly $2 million, the highest ever for a baseball bat.
Docments related to the sale of baseball legend Babe Ruth to the Yankess just sold for more than triple the amount the team paid for him in 1919.
In an auction that ended last week at Lelands, a sports memorabilia auction house, over a dozen documents connected to Ruth's sale from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees sold for a combined $307,000. In 1919, the Yankees paid $100,000 for Ruth, the equivalent of about $1.6 million today — less than half the average MLB player's salary for last season, at $4.22 million.
The lot included a series of letters between league and team officials about the Yankees transaction itself, along with other financial documents and promissory notes related to loans taken out to make the 103-year-old transaction happen.
In another auction that closed earlier this month, a bat previously used by Ruth sold for a whopping $1.85 million, topping his own previous record of $1.68 million for the most expensive baseball bat ever sold. Hunt Auctions, which sold the bat, told MLB.com it was originally auctioned along with other bats at the Polo Grounds, an old New York City stadium.
The man who bought it at the initial auction reportedly gave it to an employee as a recognition of good work, and he kept it for decades before it was auctioned this month. Experts told MLB.com that the bat, and a rare few others like it, can be authenticated by matching the grain pattern in the wood to old photos of Ruth holding it.
"This baseball bat is as close to a work of art as the medium can allow," Dave Hunt, president of Hunt Auctions, told MLB.com."Equally impressive to the record price established is the enduring legacy that Ruth left for seemingly endless generations of fans who continue to revere his legend — both on and off of the baseball field."
While the price set records, it still pales in comparison to the cost of collectibles like vintage, mint-condition baseball cards. A 1952 Mickey Mantle card set the record for sports trading cards last year, selling for a massive $12.6 million.
Another record was set earlier this month for the most expensive pair of shoes ever sold, when a pair of Jordan 13 sneakers worn by Michael Jordan in the 1998 NBA Finals sold for $2.2 million.