Ruth Signed Ball - An interesting story...

[scmavl]

EDIT (3/1/2021): I'd originally made this post only to ask if the Ruth was legit or clubhouse (it's legit). Now I'll elaborate.


Awhile back, a client of mine (retired lawyer) had seen all of the signed balls and photos in my office. He told me "I've got a ball at home signed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig!" Well, I'm sure we all think the same thing when we hear that from a non-collector, "Mmmm hmmm, you've got a fake ball." He said he'd bring it in and show me one day, and a couple of months later he did. He said "Keep it for a few days and tell me what you find out about it."

The story behind the ball is his mother was a schoolteacher and taught a fellow who went on to play for the Washington Senators. All he remembered was the name was "Weaver". I began doing some digging, and figured out that would've been pitcher Monte Weaver who played for the Senators in the 1930s. Then I began analyzing all of the readable signatures, and found something very interesting. Here is an excerpt from the letter I gave him about my findings:

Based on the readable signatures, the ball was signed in 1934 by members of the New York Yankees and Washington Senators. I can’t make all of the signatures out, but here is who I can see for certain:

Yankees: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Lefty Gomez, Eddie Phillips

Senators: Johnny Stone, Ossie Bluege, Luke Sewell, Alex McColl, Monte Weaver, Fred Sington, Jake Powell, Ed Linke, Joe Kuhel

To me, the most interesting signature on the ball is Fred Sington. While he wasn’t a remarkable player, his signature on here dates the ball precisely. Fred made his baseball debut with the Senators on Sept 23, 1934, near the end of the season. The only time after that the Yankees played the Senators that season was on Sept 29 & 30. That means this ball was signed on one of those two days, as Babe Ruth “retired” from the Yankees at the end of the season (he came back the next year as a player/manager for the Boston Braves before officially retiring). So I can be fairly certain in saying this ball was signed on September 29 or 30, 1934 at Griffith Stadium in Washington DC.

So this was likely one of the last balls Ruth signed as a Yankee! What an amazing piece. The owner and his sister used to toss it around in the backyard as children, but luckily most of the signatures survived. The ball will be given to his children and is 100% not for sale (I offered!), so I have no stake in this. I just wanted to share this cool story of a notable ball.

Here are some more photos.