This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/8/2017
On July 11, 1914, less than five months after leaving St. Mary’s Industrial School in Baltimore, Babe made his debut at Fenway Park for the Boston Red Sox: he pitched seven innings against Cleveland and received credit for a 4-3 win. After being hit hard by Detroit in his second outing, Ruth rode the bench until he was demoted to the minor leagues in mid-August, where he helped the Providence Grays capture the International League pennant. Ruth returned to Boston for the final week of the 1914 season. On October 2, he pitched a complete game victory over the Yankees and doubled for his first major-league hit. Sure, Babe Ruth put up monumental statistics during his playing career. But the Bambino was more than numbers, especially to those who knew him, like former teammate Joe Dugan, who once said, “To understand him you had to understand this: He wasn’t human.”Sports writer Tommy Holmes, a 1979 J.G. Taylor Spink Award winner, was more succinct: “Some 20 years ago, I stopped talking about the Babe for the simple reason that I realized that those who had never seen him didn’t believe me.” The offered extraordinary 6 x 7 1/2" photo shows Ruth warming up before a game and through the research that we have performed we believe the photo captures the young Ruth in 1915 because he was in the big leagues for the entirety of the 1915 season. Several small surface blemishes do appear on the front to the lower left portion of the photo and are purely relayed for the sake of complete accuracy and in no way interfere with the subject. The reverse of the photo displays what appears to be vintage red pencil notation of "Ruth" as well as the vintage Underwood and Underwood stamping, as well as extraneous pencil and a small spot of vintage tape residue.