Historic Babe Ruth ball to be auctioned

BOCA RATON — It is common knowledge that Babe Ruth hit the first home run in Yankee Stadium the day it opened in 1923.

That same ball could fetch as high as $4 million for the owner of a Boca Raton museum of sports memoribila, who has had the ball for the past six decades.

The memento is the No. 1 item of 126 that will be up for bid Saturday in Baltimore at an auction commemorating the 100th anniversary of Ruth’s 1914 debut season in the major leagues. (View them all at GoldinAuctions.com.)

Sports Immortals Museum proprietor Joel Platt, who bought the ball fromthe family of the constructionworker who retrieved it from the bleachers in right field on a snowy day in February 1923 for “several thousand dollars,” expects if to fetch well into seven figures.

“I think it could go as high as $3 million or $4 million,” Platt said. “I think the value of what this could go for is limitless, for its historical significance and the fact that it’s Babe Ruth and Yankee Stadium. It’s the first baseball ever hit for a home run at Yankee Stadium.”

Unofficially, that is. The tale, though, is more intriguing than the first homer that counted, as documented by Marshall Hunt of the New York Daily News and recounted in Leigh Montville’s 2006 tome about the Babe, “The Big Bam.”

Hunt coaxed Ruth out of his hotel on Valentine’s Day to take some shots at the home run porch in right field at the new ballpark. After snow was cleared in the approximate location of home plate, Ruth removed his fur coat and hit the third or fourth pitch into the stands.

The stadium that would become known as “The House That Ruth Built” hadn’t yet been formally named, so when the worker brought the ball in to be signed, Ruth wrote, “New Yankee Field Feb14-23 Babe Ruth.”

The inscription has been certified by James Spence Authentication.

The scuff mark on the panel above Ruth’s writing is believed to be where the bat impacted the ball.

The ball that Ruth hit for the first authentic homer at the stadium, a three-run clout off Howard Ehmke of the Boston Red Sox that April 18, sold in 1998 for $126,500. The bat he used brought $1.265 million in 2004.

Parting with the 1923 Ruth ball is difficult. Pratt has had it since he was 16.

A small fraction of the collection is on display at the museum (SportsImmortals.com), though it is an impressive tribute to many of the most historical figures from numerous sports. The majority of it is locked away in a vault.

Platt is hopeful that proceeds from the auction and the attention generated by it will help in his quest to establish a Sports Immortals International Hall of Fame with a much larger exhibit. He is in talks with Miami officials about the possibility of putting it at Museum Park, as well as with other cities.

“I look upon all the items in our collection — there are a million pieces; each one is like my baby,” he said. “For themost part, I’ve been able to hold onto my babies, and someday the world will get to appreciate everything.”