Babe Ruth $$$

[nineunder71]

I like your theory, but your math is WAY off

86,400 seconds in a day divided by 5 (your estimation) = 17,280 signatures a day x 365 would be over 6 million signatures a year.

PRICE CHECK on isle 5 please, I’ll buy any Ruth signature you wish to return sir.

Originally Posted by sbfinley

No doubt Ruth was an amazing signer in his day, but 1,000,000 is an implausibly high number and more hyperbole of Ruth’s generous nature. If it takes 5 seconds to grab a ball, sign your name, and sit it down. You would have to sign 24/7 365 days a year without rest for 10 years to hit that number. I think a lower number like 3,000-5,000 signed balls is more into reality and like Scott stated: many of those balls didn’t survive to today. Supply and demand.

[sbfinley]

Don’t think your special because you know numbers.

Originally Posted by nineunder71

I like your theory, but your math is WAY off

86,400 seconds in a day divided by 5 (your estimation) = 17,280 signatures a day x 365 would be over 6 million signatures a year.

PRICE CHECK on isle 5 please, I’ll buy any Ruth signature you wish to return sir.

[Snowman]

1,000,000 baseballs? lol. I'd take the under on 100,000. Let alone 1 million.

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by Snowman

1,000,000 baseballs? lol. I'd take the under on 100,000. Let alone 1 million.

Laugh out loud, Mr. Snide know it all. Ruth was the most prodigious signer known. I'll take Waite Hoyt, who knew him, over you, who didn't.

[sflayank]

To sign a million baseballs you would have to sign 100 every day for 30 years....no he didn't sign a million
100,000...10 per day for 30 years...I guess thats possible

[mrreality68]

Regardless of the #.
We all know he signed alot and created alot of inventory of signed balls.
But Due to his name, his history, and his legend his demand is so great that it makes that inventory often low inventory and as a result the Demand keeps going up.
Thus the Prices Keep Going up

He is Bigger then Life on his own

and every time he is mentioned in modern day like when Shohei Ohtani gets compared to Ruth it just means more people, young people, international people all learn, re-learn, or get the Legend of Ruth more enhanced and this creates even more demand for Ruth items.

And as some discussed as some of the inventory of cards, balls, or other items dry up then other cards that normally never went for much increase because regardless of its for investment or for collecting people will buy what they can get and what they can afford.

[nineunder71]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...IRWgFcpTFV_A4G


I’ve never done this before, so I hope it works

I’m hoping the above link works, if so it should take you to an article from the Albuquerque Journal written in 2015. My really good friend, kinda my baseball card mentor, ‘Bubba’ owned an awesome shop here in Abq for over 30 years. I frequented his shop from the time I was a small child, until he closed it down shortly after this incident(well into my thirties).

His prize possession was that Babe Ruth ball. I got to know Jim pretty darn well as I got older I would frequent his shop almost weekly, and he would show me all sorts of super neat stuff. Jim was into perfect centering and Gem Mint cards long before any TPG ever slabbed a card. His collection today would bring $$ through the ROOF. I’m not positive, but I truly believe when the ball was stolen from him, he lost interest, and literally closed up shop.

I don’t know whatever came of this story, sadly I have not seen Bubba since, but with so many other balls out there, I sure hope he gets to own, hold & enjoy another one..

Since this board is so extensive and chalked full of super collectors, wouldn’t it be cool if we could somehow find his exact ball, the one with the ‘R’ written twice. I would think if the owner today knew the story behind it, something surly could get worked out to return the ball to Bubba.

Probably a super long shot, but I figured I would throw this out there.

See what I did there, thanks all

Colton

[BabyRuth]

Every thread needs a card or two

[egri]

Autograph collecting didn't take off until the 1920s, so the number of Ruth-signed baseballs from before then is probably negligible. Most were probably obtained in person, as I have a hard time imagining that in the Great Depression/World War II/immediate aftermath there were a significant number of people with the resources to mail baseballs to and from him. For the sake of argument, assume he signed 50 baseballs before each game during the season. 1920-1934 (his last full season) is 2,310 games, not including spring training, exhibitions and World Series. That works out to 115,500 baseballs. If the Leavy book is accurate, then that could easily add another 1,000 to each year's total, which would bring the total to 130,500. If he signed another 1,000 a year (3 a day, or a couple of those signings where he would knock out hundreds at a time), for the rest of his life, then that raises the number to 145,500. How many of those baseballs got The Sandlot treatment is anyone's guess, and of course the numbers I used are rough estimates; the true figure could well be higher or lower, and probably can't be stated with any degree of certainty.

[Jstottlemire1]

Originally Posted by BabyRuth

Every thread needs a card or two

I’ve been looking to pick up a w590 Ruth for a while now. Great example.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by jingram058

Laugh out loud, Mr. Snide know it all. Ruth was the most prodigious signer known. I'll take Waite Hoyt, who knew him, over you, who didn't.

OK, well if you're going to resort to name calling, then I'll return the favor. You're an absolute imbecile if you think anyone has ever signed 1 million baseballs, let alone Babe Ruth.

[jingram058]

No one really cares. I still take Waite Hoyt and his publisher over you. You don't know everything. But you certainly think you do. If I am an imbecile, so be it. Don't care.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Before I started reading all the comments in this thread, which resulted in the silly name calling that is all too common on this forum, I was also going to venture the 100,000 figure for signed baseballs. That's far from a small number, and just think of all the other signed material. Also, I am speaking only of single-signed balls, not team or multi-signed. Signed cards were barely collected in Ruth's day, so I won't even venture a guess on how many Goudeys he may have signed, among other cards.

We hear lots of stories of players signing which are always inflated with hyperbole. A couple of far smaller examples:

King Kelly was arguably the game's first superstar. The earliest story I know which involves a player signing autographs recounts Kelly signing for crowds of kids. I'm not saying it didn't happen, as I'm far from 150 years old, but shouldn't at least a nice handful of autographed album pages have survived? Autograph books were the preferred medium, and as we've seen, tons of them have survived from Kelly's era. Perhaps not teeming with baseball autographs, but what does that tell us?

What about the story in TGOTT of Bugs Raymond trading autographed balls for drinks? Remember, like the Waite Hoyt story, this one came directly from the mouth of his contemporary. Meaningless. Again, logic would dictate a fraction of these having survived the test of time, especially if given to an adult who might have occasion to take better care of it than a child. I suppose one could argue with Prohibition being just around the corner, each and every one of those signed balls was disposed of with the closing of taverns nationwide. Conversely, shouldn't then have some of them have been packed away in boxes shortly after they were signed, therefore even preserving at least one (in decent condition to boot)? Nah. Signed balls were not en vogue in Raymond's era. My best hypothesis is that yes, he did trade baseballs for drinks but didn't sign them. I could see him telling a tall tale about how each ball won a crucial game, etc. That makes so much more sense, doesn't it?