By Vince Scalamogna
While looking back on old news articles about the most valuable sports memorabilia ever, I found numerous articles about a New York Yankees jersey worn by Babe Ruth around 1920 selling for $4.4 million at an auction in May 2012. That price is the most money ever spent on sports memorabilia! It breaks the previous record of $4.3 million spent in 2010 on Dr. James Naismith’s founding rules of basketball.
The Babe Ruth jersey had been kept on display at The Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Lelands Auction House submitted the winning bid for the jersey and plans to sell the jersey to a private collector. The jersey was worn by Babe Ruth shortly after his trade from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees.
Ruth, who retired in 1935, held the record for most career home runs in Major League Baseball history. He held that record for nearly 40 years until Hank Aaron and then Barry Bonds. The career home run record now stands at 762.
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Photo Credit and Sources
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/7953437/babe-ruth-jersey-sells-record-44-million
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/05/20/babe-ruth-jersey-sells-for-record-44-million-at-auction.htm