Babe Ruth ‘called shot’ Yankees jersey sells for $24.12 million in record-shattering auction

Babe Ruth is still setting records in 2024.

The road jersey the Yankees legend wore when he called his shot in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series against the Cubs sold for $24.12 million at Heritage Auctions, shattering the record as the most expensive sports collectible ever.

The previous record, per ESPN, was a mint Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle card — one of the holy grails among card collectors — that was graded 9.5 by SGC, which sold for $12.6 million in August 2022.

A month later, Michael Jordan’s “Last Dance” Bulls jersey from Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals sold for $10.1 million.

According to Heritage Auctions, Ruth gave the jersey to a friend he played golf with in Florida around 1940, and the man’s daughter sold it to a collector in the early 1990s, per the Associated Press. It then sold for $940,000 at auction in 2005.

At that time, the jersey was only linked to the ’32 World Series, and it wasn’t until the last few years that it was photo-matched to Game 3, according to ESPN.

While the intention of Ruth pointing his finger at Wrigley Field on Oct. 1, 1932, has been the subject of fierce debate, many believe he “called his shot,” predicting he was about to hit a home run off of Charlie Root.

The home run was Ruth’s second of the game, helping the Yankees win 7-5 before they swept the Cubs the next day.

It was Ruth’s final postseason home run in what was the last World Series the American icon ever played in.

“This is essentially the Mona Lisa. It’s s a very mythical moment that crosses over not only in baseball history, but American history, pop culture history,” Heritage Auctions’ director of sports auctions, Chris Ivy, told ESPN. “We’re still talking about it 100 years later, which is one of the reasons why I think it’s the most significant piece of sports memorabilia in the world.”