A Babe Ruth bat from 1921 sold for a record $1.85 million at auction
A Babe Ruth bat from the 1920 and 1921 seasons was sold for a record price at an auction this week.
The “Polo Grounds” bat was sold for a record $1.85 million, Hunt Auctions announced Wednesday. The purchaser is the “only known example to offer photographic corroboration” with the purchase, too. The bat was matched to a 1921 photo of Ruth using it during the season.
Historic Babe Ruth professional model bat once displayed at Polo Grounds sold for $1,850,000. The bat was assigned the highest grade (GU10) by @PSAcard in addition to being photo matched to 1921 season. World record price for any baseball bat! @Yankees @MLB pic.twitter.com/f5Frx3fVxS
— Hunt Auctions (@HuntAuctions) April 5, 2023
The bat was last purchased at auction in 2018 for just more than $400,000, and it was estimated then that the bat was used between 1920 and 1922. It was later matched to the photo, which narrowed the time frame and increased the bat's value.
"I am very familiar with the 'Polo Grounds' Babe Ruth bat, bringing it into the hobby 30 years ago," John Taube of PSA Pro Bat Services said in a statement provided by Hunt Auctions, via ESPN. "The rich brown patina and the Ruth characteristics that were present, then and now, establish the bat as one of the premier Babe Ruth game-used bats in any collection, public or private."
Ruth hit 59 home runs, a single-season record at the time, and recorded 168 RBIs in the 1921 season. The bat was graded a perfect 10.
The previous record for a bat sold was set last year, when a different Ruth bat sold for $1.68 million.
"It is without surprise that the Babe has once again pushed yet another sports memorabilia category to record pricing territory," Hunt Auctions president David Hunt said, via ESPN. "This baseball bat is as close to a work of art as the medium can allow."
