“The 1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth card ranks right up there with the 1909-11 T206 Honus Wagner card, widely considered the ‘holy grail’ of sports card collecting,” said Brian Fleischer of Beckett Media, one of the country’s premier memorabilia evaluators.
So it seems Ruth and Wagner have more in common than being part of the first class inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936.
On April 20, a Wagner card sold at auction for $1.2 million, a sign Fleischer says shows that the vintage sports card market remains extremely strong.
The exact value of the Ruth card is estimated at somewhere between $200,000-$500,000, but that number could fluctuate based on the card’s condition and who is bidding. According to Fleischer, a card in “very good condition” sold at auction in 2008 for $517,000. But the Ruth card is valuable to different people for varied reasons.
To collectors, it’s a unique artifact worth several hundred thousand dollars. To historians and those whose mission is to preserve the sanctity of our sports culture, it is a valued treasure that has no price tag.
For Mike Gibbons, the executive director of the Babe Ruth Birthplace Foundation, it is the latter as the card signifies an iconic reference point that links visitors to the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum with the immediate starting point of Ruth's baseball career.
“Babe Ruth is the most important player ever to impact the game of baseball,” said Gibbons. “By preserving his rookie card and displaying it to the public for generations to come, the museum hopes to keep the significance of his contributions and impact on our national pastime as dynamic as the day he retired.”
For Glenn Davis, the owner of the card, it represents a lasting family bond. His grandfather, Archie, sold newspapers on the street of Baltimore and collected each of the cards that The News American inserted in the papers in 1914.
“I remember playing with them when I was little, said Davis. “Had I recognized their ultimate value, I probably would have treated them better.”
Upon his passing, Archie Davis gave them to his son, Richard, who took them to the museum to be appraised. When he realized the rarity of what he had, he loaned the cards to the museum in 1998 knowing that they would be well protected.
When Richard died, his son, Glenn, chose to leave the cards with the Museum. The collection is one of the rarest as is contains 11 cards from the set.
“I have always felt good knowing that, something that my grandfather and father considered worthy of saving, is now available for others to enjoy,” said Davis. “It spent 80 plus years sitting in an envelope, in a dresser drawer, so it's nice to have it in a more appropriate setting.”
While the Wagner card, which was released in cigarette packs sold by the American Tobacco Company, has drawn higher bids, Fleischer says there are between 50 to 60 of the cards in existence. However, there are believed to be only about a dozen Ruth rookie cards in the market, and he says that the1914 Baltimore News American card stands out as Ruth’s first known baseball card.
Ironically, the man who would set baseball’s single-season homerun record is shown on the card as a pitcher. Of all of his incredible records, Ruth was most proud of his consecutive scoreless innings pitched in World Series play - 29 and 2/3 innings without giving up a run. That record stood until broken by Whitey Ford in the '60s. From 1915-17, Ruth won 65 games, the most by any left-handed pitcher in the majors during that time.
Gibbons shares Davis’ belief that the card deserves to be on display for fans to see.
“Ruth has transcended the realm of sports to become an American cultural icon” added Gibbons. “Our hope is to share the card with audiences across America and beyond through a traveling Rookie Card display.”
But until Gibbons finds a sponsor for such a show, the rare piece of Ruth memorabilia will remain the highlight of the set of 1914 cards that rest behind protective glass on the second floor of the Baltimore City rowhome, turned Museum, where Ruth was born in 1895.
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