Babe Ruth’s 104-year-old high school baseball glove could fetch a reported $1 million at auction next month.
The catcher’s mitt, which dates to Ruth’s time at St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys in Baltimore circa 1912, will be up for auction by Goldin Auctions at a New York City restaurant on April 30, with bidding starting at $125,000,
TMZ reported.
Ruth reportedly gave the glove to a kid, whose family has displayed it at the Babe Ruth Museum since 1993. Now they're ready to sell it.
Another Babe Ruth baseball glove is among memorabilia to be auctioned April 2 by Saco River Auction in Maine. That glove was owned by New York TV and radio personality Joe Franklin, who died in January 2015,
Boston.com reported.
The auction items come from an anonymous collector who spent years buying items from Franklin’s collection, Boston.com noted, citing auctioneer Troy Thibodeau.
The collection includes Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse ears, Frank Sinatra’s fedora, John Wayne’s Stetson, leather jackets belonging to Steve McQueen and Marlon Brando, Laurel and Hardy’s boxing gloves, a baseball glove used by Joe DiMaggio, and a harmonica used by Janis Joplin.
Thibodeau said interest in Babe Ruth’s glove is much greater than in other items,
The Associated Press reported.
Ruth, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland, joined the Boston Red Sox as a rookie in 1914 and was traded to the New York Yankees after six years. Ruth, whose record 714 home runs stood until 1974, was among the first five players to be inducted into the sport’s Hall of Fame,
according to Biography.com.