The jersey Babe Ruth wore when he may or may not have called his shot during the 1932 World Series set a record this weekend at an auction house in North Texas. Heritage Auctions says Ruth's jersey sold for $24.1 million, which is the most ever paid for a sports collectible.
"Once you get into this stratosphere of value, it's not only someone who's going to love baseball, but it's someone who has the means and sees it as an investment," says Director of Sports Auctions Chris Ivy. "This piece is like a piece of art. There's a handful of people who can own a Da Vinci; there's only one person in the world who can own the Mona Lisa. For sports collectibles, this Babe Ruth called shot jersey, I consider to be the greatest piece of sports memorabilia in the world. This is the Mona Lisa of sports collectibles."
Heritage says the winning bid came after an eight hour bidding war, and the auction ended about 4:30 Sunday morning. The winning bidder chose to stay anonymous.
The previous record for the most expensive collectible was set at Heritage in 2022. A 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball card sold for $12.6 million.
Initially, Ivy says Ruth denied he had called his shot, saying Ruth may have been pointing toward the outfield, the Cubs' dugout or pitcher Charlie Root. But as legend grew, Ruth started to fuel the myth.
"Ruth was smart about that," Ivy says. "There were some quotes early on where he said he wasn't calling his shot, but as reporters and the story continued to grow, three or four days later, he said, 'Of course I was calling my shot. I told them it was going to go in the bleachers.'"
Heritage used photo matching to confirm the jersey's authenticity from the placement of buttons to stains on the front.
Heritage says Ruth kept the jersey until giving it to a friend in the 1940s. The friend's daughter then sold it to "an early sports auction pioneer" in the 1990s, and it stayed in a private collection until the auction this weekend.
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