Babe Ruth jersey sells for record US$24.1 million

The jersey worn by Babe Ruth, widely regarded as the greatest baseball player of all time, during Game Three of the 1932 World Series became the most expensive item of sporting memorabilia after selling at auction for US$24.12 million on Saturday.

The shirt, worn when New York Yankees’ Ruth pointed before hitting a home run against Chicago Cubs’ Charlie Root, beat the previous record held by a Michael Jordan jersey from the 1998 NBA finals, which sold for US$10.1 million in 2022.

“If this was a piece of art, this would be like buying the Mona Lisa,” Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions at Heritage Auctions, said.

“We know that he pointed, but we don’t know if he was pointing to the pitcher, if he was pointing towards the Cubs players in the dugout, or if he was calling his shot. But that mystery is why we’re still talking about it almost 100 years later,” Ivy added.

The Yankees won the series 7-5, Ruth’s seventh and final World Series title.

(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)