Babe Ruth Single Signed Baseball (PSA/DNA NM-MT 8)

Babe Ruth Single Signed Baseball (PSA/DNA NM-MT 8)

For most baseball collectors, their “Holy Grail” is, and always will be, a single-signed Babe Ruth baseball. The reasons why are many and varied. There is the fact that he is the greatest player the game has ever produced. For before he started re-writing the record books with his epic home runs, Babe Ruth was renown as the best left-handed pitcher in the American League. No player has ever come close to matching this complete dominance over the two opposite facets of the game. His very life seemed to embody the American Spirit, rising from a juvenile delinquent on the Baltimore waterfront, shunned by his own family to become the most recognized man in North America, idolized by millions. It is only natural that the game’s greatest collectible is attributable to Babe Ruth.

The Babe’s well-practiced script, honed during his years at a Catholic orphanage, has the same swagger and boldness in which he lived his life. As was his custom and privilege as the game’s greatest star, Ruth signed his name on the ball’s sweet spot, the part of the ball from which he launched the home runs that made him famous. And that takes us to this stellar example of the hobby’s “Holy Grail.” Ruth’s unmistakable script appears on the ball’s sweet spot in strong black fountain pen. The absence of quotations around “Babe” points to this being signed rom the late 1920s on. The manufacturer’s markings on this ball are quite faded, but the presence of Harry Williams’ facsimile signature on one panel, red and black stitching and partially obscured markings tentatively point to this being a 1924-1931 Wilson Official Pacific Coast League ball. Ruth’s signature on a PCL ball of this era would make sense as the Babe often barnstormed on the west coast during this period. In addition to the aforementioned fading of the ball’s markings, there are numerous surface scuffs and abrasions, though none obscure or intrude on the Babe’s signature. Overall toning of the leather gives the ball a warm patina which contrasts nicely with the Babe’s signature. An outstanding example of the hobby’s most iconic piece of memorabilia – a Babe Ruth single-signed ball dating to his playing days. This ball comes with a LOA from PSA/DNA (AH05880) for the signature, which has been graded a NM-MT 8.