Babe Ruth ‘called shot’ jersey sells for record £18.1m

Babe Ruth won the World Series seven times [Getty Images]

The jersey worn by baseball legend Babe Ruth when he “called the shot” during the 1932 World Series has become the most expensive item of sporting memorabilia to sell at auction.

Ruth’s jersey sold for £18.1m ($24.12m), dwarfing the £9.53m ($12.6m) paid in 2022 for a 1952 Topps baseball card featuring New York Yankees outfielder Mickey Mantle.

The previous record for a jersey sold at auction was basketball legend Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls shirt from the 1998 NBA finals, which sold for £7.64m ($10.1m) in 2022.

Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions at Heritage Auctions, called it “the most significant piece of American sports memorabilia ever offered at auction”.

“If this was a piece of art, this would be like buying the Mona Lisa,” Ivy added.

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Ruth, infamously traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees in 1920, was wearing the jersey while playing for the Yankees during Game Three of the 1932 World Series against the Chicago Cubs.

He notoriously “called the shot” while batting by pointing towards centre field, before hitting a home run off Cubs pitcher Charlie Root.

The Yankees won the game 7-5 – and the series 4-0 – and it was Ruth’s final home run in a World Series.

Ruth, widely regarded as the best baseball player of all time, won the World Series seven times.

He retired in 1935, and died in 1948 at the age of 53.

Ruth’s trade from the Red Sox to the Yankees spawned the “Curse of the Bambino” legend, as Boston went for more than 80 years without winning a World Series after letting Ruth go [Getty Images]