SLN NOVEMBER 19 Final R

Seven Lakes News November Edition Page 9
Babe Ruth Bat
Going To Auction
The bat used by Babe Ruth to slug
his 500th career home run in 1929
is going up for auction, nearly 75
years after he gave it to a friend
whose family has kept it ever since.
Ruth became the first player to
reach the coveted plateau on Aug.
11, 1929, hitting a solo shot for the
New York Yankees off Willis Hudlin
at League Park in Cleveland.
In the mid-1940s, Ruth gave the
bat to his friend Jim Rice, who was
mayor of Suffern, New York. Ruth
and Rice enjoyed golfing, bowling
and dining together, and Ruth
was a regular visitor to the Rice
household, where he came to know
Jim‘s wife, Ethyl, and their children.
Terry Rice, an attorney in Suffern
and Jim‘s only son, is selling the
bat. Born two years after Ruth
died in 1948, Rice more closely
associates Mickey Mantle and Yogi
Berra with the Yankees of his youth,
but he remembers Ruth‘s bat sat in
the corner behind the television in
the family‘s den.
It was always there. It was part of
life. No one said I couldn‘t touch
it. I never took it out and played
baseball with it.“
Good thing, too, since the bat
was recently authenticated and
received the highest grade given.
It‘s in perfect condition.
The Louisville Slugger shows marks
on the upper barrel where Ruth
knocked mud off his cleats. The
left barrel has impressions where
the bat made contact with the ball.
There‘s also a bit of green paint
from where the bat rested in the
dugout between uses.
Babe Ruth is the king of the
sports collectibles marketplace,
SCP Auctions President David
Kohler said. When a fresh Ruth
item of such quality and historical
importance as this one surfaces, it
generates tremendous excitement
throughout our industry.
Ruth‘s 500th homer cleared the
right-field wall in Cleveland, sailed
out of the park and rolled down
Lexington Avenue, where it was
plucked by an Indians fan. After
the game, the ball was returned to
Ruth in exchange for $20 and his
autograph.
It would be another 16 years before
Mel Ott became the second player
to reach 500 homers in 1945.
After Jim Rice died in 1983, his wife
kept possession of the bat until her
death in 1997. Then it passed to
Terry Rice and was stashed in a
closet.
You couldn‘t leave it out, Rice said.
I wasn‘t enjoying it. I got to the point
where we were worried about it.“
Rice, 69, talked to his two older
sisters before deciding to sell. They
plan to split the proceeds.
Officials from SCP Auctions in
Laguna Niguel, California, estimate
the bat could sell for over $1 million.
SCP sold Ruth‘s bat used to homer
on Opening Day of the 1923
season at Yankee Stadium for
$1.26 million in 2004. Rice said he
hopes the Yankees or the Baseball
Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New
York, would be interested in the bat.
Online bidding begins Nov. 27th.
Edited By: Millie Jameson SLN
Source: API, Taboola
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