Going once: Babe Ruth called-shot jersey from 1932 World Series could go for over $15.1 million

The jersey worn by the Sultan of Swat when he purportedly called his shot in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series between the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs is up for auction.

The Babe Ruth jersey, which has been confirmed by photos as matching what he wore at Wrigley Field on Oct. 1, 1932, is being sold at Heritage Auctions this weekend. The current high bid for the jersey is $15.1 million. 

At that price, it would become the most expensive sports collectible ever, surpassing a 1952 trading card of fellow Yankee Mickey Mantle that sold for $12.6 million in 2022.

“Ruth’s World Series jersey is the most significant piece of American sports memorabilia to be offered at auction in decades,” Heritage Director of Sports Auctions Chris Ivy said in a release. 

In that 1932 Fall Classic, Ruth’s Yankees won the first two games in the Bronx. In Game 3 in Chicago, he swatted a three-run homer in the first inning and was up again in the fifth inning when he supposedly made a pointing gesture to call where his shot would go before hitting another Charlie Root pitch for a solo home run.

“To me, it was the funniest, proudest moment I had ever had in baseball. I jogged down toward first base, rounded it, looked back at the Cub bench and suddenly got convulsed with laughter. … There they were — all out on the top step and yelling their brains out — and then [I] connected and they watched it and then fell back as if they were being machine-gunned,” Ruth later said of the iconic homer, as recounted in the jersey’s lot description.

The Yankees won that game 7-5 and completed their Series sweep by beating the Cubs 13-6 the next day. It was the last of Ruth’s seven world titles before his retirement in 1935. He held onto the jersey before gifting it to a golf buddy in Florida circa 1940. From there, the jersey was passed to that man’s daughter, who sold it to a collector around 1990.

From there, the collector auctioned it off in 2005 for $940,000, according to The Associated Press, and the winning bidder from that auction consigned the jersey to Heritage Auctions this year.