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Rare Babe Ruth-signed memorabilia highlights Memory Lane’s Summer Rarities Auction
Even late in life, Babe Ruth loved making public appearances, surprising fans and kids with his boisterous and exuberant personality.
Despite battling throat cancer at age 53, Ruth made seven appearances in 1947 for American Legion Baseball and Ford Motor Company.
One of those appearances came on “Babe Ruth Day” in Houston on July 10, 1947. And the Babe left behind a souvenir that has been beautifully preserved for 75 years and is now up for auction.
A baseball Ruth signed that day carries a signature graded PSA 10 GEM MINT and comes with provenance tying it to the 1947 appearance in Houston.
The ball highlights Memory Lane’s Summer Rarities Auction, which opens Aug. 17 and runs through Sept. 10.
The auction features more than 2,200 lots of rare and high-end items available in two separate catalogs. One catalog is dedicated exclusively to autographs, like Ruth’s 1947 ball, which features his signature in blue fountain pen on an official Texas League ball. It comes with an inscription from the ball’s original owner listing the location, time, place and result of a game played that day with Ruth in attendance.
The ball has an opening bid of $25,000.
The ball is one of numerous Ruth-autographed items in the auction, including a 1922 Ruth-signed New York Yankees payroll check dating to the first game of the 1922 World Series. It also includes a 1927 signed check from the account of his longtime agent, Christy Walsh, and the only known autographed 1932 U.S. Caramel baseball card with a the PSA 9 signature and a 1939 Baseball Hall of Fame first day cover.
The auction also features a Lou Gehrig bonus payroll check dating to the 1930 season.
Other highlights from the Autograph Rarities catalog include: 356 PSA encapsulated autographed 1952 Topps baseball cards, including those from Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays; a remarkable group of autographed Roberto Clemente cards from 1956-1972, including a few that represent the only signed copies known to exist. None of the signed Clemente cards has a PSA authenticated population of over 10 with nearly all in the low to mid-single digits.
The second catalog features a wide range of single cards, sets, near sets and memorabilia. Some of the highlights include:
• A 1961-62 Fleer Basketball unopened wax box with BBCE documentation revealing that the box includes an unopened pack with a Wilt Chamberlain rookie card on top, another pack with a Chamberlain in Action card and a third showing an Elgin Baylor rookie card.
• Numerous pre-war cards, including one of the T206 set’s “Big Four.”
• A PSA 3 copy of the Sherry “Magie” error card.
• Other low-pop and high-grade T206 cards as well as a fresh-to-the-hobby T204 Ramly Walter Johnson card (PSA 2).
• A PSA 9 Pete Rose rookie (card only one higher).
• Dozens of Mickey Mantle cards.
• The No. 2-ranked 1952 Bowman Football set amassed over a 25-year period by avid collector Chris Stalikas, who passed away earlier this year.
• A huge lot of Boston Red Sox programs, including one of two known copies from the first game of the modern World Series in 1903 and other Series programs from Fenway Park’s earliest days (1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918.)
• A large Cleveland Browns collection, including vintage Jim Brown cards, team-signed footballs and other memorabilia.
For more information and preview copies of the catalog, visit memorylaneinc.com.
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