The jersey worn by MLB legend Babe Ruth for the "called shot" game will be available for auction in August, as relayed by ESPN and ABC 7 News.
Ruth wore the jersey when he "called his shot" in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series. He was playing for the New York Yankees, who swept the Chicago Cubs for the championship that season. Heritage Auctions will be auctioning off the jersey.
"The sale of the road gray Ruth jersey, available to the public for the first time in 19 years, is expected to set a record for a sports collectible at auction where it could fetch upwards of $30 million, according to Chris Ivy, Heritage Auctions' director of sports auctions," ESPN wrote. "The jersey last sold for $940,000 in 2005 with Grey Flannel Auctions. At that time, it was dated to the 1932 season, purported to be from that year's series. But the jersey has now been photo-matched by MeiGray Authenticated."
The Ruth jersey action is scheduled for Aug. 23-25.
"There were a couple of things that helped [this jersey] stand out from previous seasons," said Jim Montague, MeiGray's vice president of authentication. "How the Y was positioned on the front of the jersey in relationship to the buttons and the placket on the jersey. Back then, everything was hand-stitched on. There are seamstresses putting names and numbers and stitching the collar, stitching of the names in the collar, they're doing it by hand. When you see certain placements, you have [something] unique. They're not doing it the same two times in a row."
Ruth famously was known to have called his "shot" of a home run during the fifth inning of Game 3 in 1932, his 10th and final World Series.
"With the score tied 4-4, Ruth stepped to the plate and pointed; whether he intended to point at pitcher Charlie Root, to the Cubs' dugout, or to the outfield remains a matter of historical uncertainty," ESPN wrote. "But he clubbed a four-bagger on a Root curveball an estimated 440 feet to center (in some reports it balloons to 490), immortalized henceforth as Ruth's legendary 'called shot.'"
