Before Babe Ruth became a legendary slugger with the New York Yankees, he was a budding teenager navigating the minor leagues. Now, a rare baseball card capturing his early playing days is set to hit the auction block, with expectations of fetching a substantial fortune.
A Glimpse Into Ruth’s Early Days
At the beginning of his baseball journey, Babe Ruth served as a pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, a minor league team. A scarce baseball card from this period, printed in 1914 in red and blue versions, is garnering attention.
Featuring a 19-year-old Ruth as an Oriole pitcher, only ten copies of this card, in either color, are known to exist today. One of these rare gems is slated for auction during Robert Edward Auctions’ fall sale.
Auction Anticipation and Expected Value
The starting price of this sports memorabilia is pencilled in at a whopping $2.5 million, with experts projecting the final price to soar to $10 million or potentially higher.
This rare card has the potential to break records, challenging the current all-time-high price set by a 1952 mint condition Mickey Mantle card, which fetched $12.6 million last year. Brian Dwyer, president of the auction house, asserts that this Babe Ruth rookie card is the most significant baseball card of all time!
Historical Significance and Ownership Journey
Originally owned by Archibald Davis, who acquired it at the age of 16 while delivering newspapers in 1914, the card has travelled through the Davis family for over a century. The Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore housed the card from 1998 until the Davis family sold it to a private collector in 2021.
Although not in mint condition like the record-breaking Mantle card, the Babe Ruth rookie card carries a grade of “3” by SGC, indicating very good condition. The auction house hails it as the “second-finest confirmed example” of Ruth’s rookie card, representing the highest-graded version to be auctioned in at least 15 years! We can’t wait to find out who buys it and, more importantly, for how much!
Jonathan Papelbon Said He Had the Best Entrance Music in MLB History
Recently, the Mets closer Edwin Diaz made an entrance from the bullpen to the field that went viral online and reached very high viewership numbers. So, former Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon couldn’t hold it in and made a bold claim during a podcast. He stated that his entrance music when he was an active player was the best one in MLB history.
Jonathan Papelbon Thinks He Had the Best Entrance in MLB History
Papelbon said that while everybody wanted to talk about Diaz and his entrance these days, he had to let people know where the walk-out song came out and who was the all-time number one, meaning himself. He pointed out that when people would hear “Shipping Up to Boston”, they knew what was going on. Still, many believe that was a bold claim because Former Yankees closer Mariano Rivera would go out on the field to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”, and his entrance is still considered one of the best in baseball history by many. Despite that, Papelbon would put his “Shipping Up to Boston” entrance over the one of Rivera.
Mets Closer Edwin Diaz Managed to Go Viral With His Entrance Video
For Jonathan Papelbon, Edwin Diaz’s entrance was going just behind his own in the hierarchy. He didn’t even want to put Mariano’s entrance as the second one. For him, there was no question that “Shipping Up to Boston” was the best of all time. He clarified that people had to look at many different factors. Most important of all was the reaction of the fans when the music would come into play. According to him, the fans in Boston went nuts when it would start, while Yankee Stadium with Mo was just not that great and didn’t have the same effect.
Whether or not Jonathan Papelbon had the best entrance in baseball history is something the fans will have to decide. He played 12 seasons in MLB and won the 2007 Delivery Man of the Year Award with the Boston Red Sox to become a 2007 World Series champion.