Babe Ruth's First Yankee Stadium Home Run Bat In Auction

[matcom]

<snip>

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The bat Babe Ruth used to belt the first home run ever hit in Yankee Stadium will be up for auction in December with a chance to join the exclusive million-dollar club for sports memorabilia.

The bat signed by Ruth after his homer helped sink his former team, the Boston Red Sox, at opening day of Yankee Stadium on April 18, 1923, is the highlight of a sale devoted to the history of baseball in New York at Sotheby's on Dec. 2.

Yankee Stadium, arguably the most famous U.S. stadium, was nicknamed "The House that Ruth Built," based on the enormous success the team achieved after he joined the club and the popularity of Ruth, the greatest slugger baseball had known.

The big-barreled Louisville Slugger bat, weighing a hefty 45 ounces (1.28 kg), is expected to fetch more than $1 million, according to Sotheby's, which would make it the only sports object besides Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball to break the million mark.

McGwire's ball sold for $3 million. The highest price ever paid for a bat was nearly $600,000 -- for Shoeless Joe Jackson's Black Betsy bat.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=573&e=3&u=/nm/20040723/od_nm/life_ruthbat_dc

[underpants]

1. Mom, it smells like liquor ,cigarettes, and cheap whores

:bounce:

[trumad]

2. The Bat

Additional highlights of the December auction will feature Babe Ruth's Last Will and Testament (signed one week prior to his death), Babe Ruth's Game Used Baseball Glove (one of only two known), Mickey Mantle's First Major League Home Run Baseball, Lou Gehrig's 1936 New York Yankees Signed Contract from his MVP Season, Ball Hit by Ruth for his 48th Home Run of the 1927 Season (inscribed), the largest signed Babe Ruth photo known to exist (1920) and an Exceptional Signed Mickey Mantle Game Used Bat, circa 1958. Items from other sought after players such as Ty Cobb, Yogi Berra, Derek Jeter and other New York baseball greats will also be offered in this extraordinary multimillion dollar sale. Sotheby's and SportsCards Plus are still accepting consignments for the auction through September 1st.
http://search.sothebys.com/about/pressrelease/ruth/pr_072004.html