1920 Babe Ruth Jersey to be Offered by SCP in May

SCP Auctions will offer one of the most valuable pieces of sports memorabilia ever brought to auction – the earliest known jersey worn by New York Yankees legend Babe Ruth.

The circa 1920 Yankees road jersey was worn by Ruth shortly after he made the transition to the Yankees from the Boston Red Sox. Exhibited for years at The Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum in Baltimore, the jersey will be put up for auction for the first time as part of SCP Auctions’ spring auction beginning April 30 and ending May 19.

The Ruth jersey is expected to bring in seven figures. Only a handful of other pieces of vintage baseball memorabilia have eclipsed the $1 million mark. Topping that list is the fabled T-206 Honus Wagner tobacco card sold by SCP Auction for $2.8 million in 2007.

Some industry experts have speculated that the Ruth jersey could raise the
bar set by the Wagner card and make sports memorabilia history as the most expensive single item ever sold.

The spring auction will also feature hundreds of other historically-significant sports memorabilia items and cards. For more information on how to participate, visit www.scpauctions.com or call (949) 831-3700.

“This is simply the finest sports artifact we’ve handled in our 30-year history,” said SCP Auctions President David Kohler. “It has it all. You would be hard pressed to dream up a more desirable baseball artifact. The historical impact of Ruth’s emergence in the Big Apple in the early 1920s, combined with the jersey’s superb original condition, makes this a sports treasure of the highest order.”

“It has a definite aura about it,” added SCP Auctions Managing Director Dan Imler. “It is hard to put a value on an item of such singular importance. Ruth was a man of mythic proportions. More than any other man, he transcended sports, achieving a nearly unrivaled status as an American icon. In the process, he changed the game
of baseball forever. To think this jersey was worn by him during the most pivotal years of his career, and arguably the most consequential years in baseball history, makes this one of the finest sports artifacts we’ll see in our lifetime.”