Babe Ruth's First All-Star Home Run Ball Is Sold for $805,000

[Eric]

Babe Ruth's First All-Star Home Run Ball Is Sold for $805,000

July 11 (Bloomberg) -- The ball Babe Ruth hit for the first home run in Major League Baseball All-Star Game history sold today at auction for $805,000.
The ball, from the inaugural game in 1933, was sold to an anonymous bidder at baseball's All-Star Fan Fest Auction in Pittsburgh, according to a press release from Hunt Auctions, which conducted the sale.
Among the more than 600 other items auctioned today was the bat Ruth used to hit his then record-setting 59th homer in 1921. It sold for $483,000.
Pirates memorabilia auctioned today in Pittsburgh included an autographed bat outfielder Roberto Clemente used in the 1969 All-Star Game which sold for $25,300. A 1968 Pirates road jersey worn by Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski sold for $18,400, while the Pirates' 1960 World Series championship trophy went for $9,890.

[Eric]

Ruth ball fetches $805,000 at auction

Tuesday, July 11, 2006
By Gary Rotstein, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


William E. Brown of El Paso, Texas put his head down and started crying.
He had just become a wealthy man in the middle of Hunt Auction sale of memorabilia at Major League Baseball's FanFest. An anonymous bidder paid $805,000 for a ball that used to fit in Mr. Brown's cedar chest and has spent the past 10 years in his son's closet in San Diego. The final price was $700,000 but the buyer also must pay a 15 percent commission to Hunt Auction.


Babe Ruth hit the ball for the first all-star home run in the 1933 game at Chicago's Comiskey Park. Mr. Brown's father, a Gary, Ind. steelworker, who died in 1965, retrieved the ball in the RF bleachers and was able to have Mr. Ruth autograph it weeks later.


Its been in the Brown family for the 73 years since.


Mr. Brown said his family decided finally to sell the ball because of money needed for his wife's medical care, but he never imagined it would earn so much.


The Ruth ball was the most expensive item of the daylong auction, which was expected to fetch more than $1.5 million in bids on at least 600 items.
A bat used by Mr. Ruth to help set a home run record in 1921 carrying a price tag of $483,000. The bat was purchased over the phone by collector Gary Cypres of Los Angeles.

[Eric]

Family thanks Babe's Star

BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
PITTSBURGH - Tears of joy poured down Bill Brown's face yesterday after an anonymous bidder agreed to shell out $805,000 for the ball Babe Ruth hit for a home run in the very first All-Star Game and later autographed.
Brown's father and mother snagged the ball at Comiskey Park 73 years ago after the Yankee slugger hit the first homer in All-Star Game history. It had been with the family ever since. Brown consigned the ball to Hunt Auctions for its MLB All-Star FanFest Auction, which was held in conjunction with last night's All-Star Game. The auction house had valued the ball at $75,000 to $125,000.
"My wife has arthritis and back problems and she probably will need a knee replacement," said Brown, a 68-year-old electrical engineer who lives in El Paso, Tex. "She doesn't have insurance so we'll use some of the money to get her fixed up and pay off our house. We have 12 grandchildren who live in Missouri and California so we'll use some of the money to visit them, too."
"Plus, you're buying dinner tonight," his son Chris said.
Brown said his father, Earl Brown, a product of Gary, Ind., asked his then-girlfriend Mae to accompany him to Chicago to attend the first major league All-Star Game, held July 6, 1933. The American League won, 4-2, thanks to Ruth's two-run smash.
A few weeks later, the Yankees were back in Chicago to play the White Sox and Earl Brown returned to Comiskey with the ball to get the Babe to autograph it.
Earl, a steelworker in Gary for 41 years, married Mae a few years later. The ball remained little more than an interesting family heirloom for decades, although Brown says his father forbid him to play with it. When Brown and his family moved from Indiana to Texas in the early '80s, they took the ball with them.
About 600 other items were also auctioned off yesterday, including the bat Ruth used to hit his 59th home run in 1921, a 1954 Ted Williams Red Sox jersey and a rare 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card.
Earlier this year Chris suggested his father sell the ball.
"We knew the ball was historic and had some value but we had no idea it would go for that much," Chris Brown said. "My God," his father added, wiping the tears from his face. "I've never seen that much money before in my life."

Originally published on July 12, 2006