Lot # 1623: 1926 Babe Ruth/Miller Huggins Original News-Service Photo - Raw Type I

Category: Baseball Items

Starting Bid: $150.00

Bids: 20 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "February 2023 Auction",
which ran from 3/24/2023 12:00 PM to
4/6/2023 11:30 PM



There is so much to appreciate about this nearly 100-year-old photo. For starters, it's an intimate moment between the Big Bam and the diminutive Mighty Mite. Or put another way, between the prodigal son and the forgiving father—just one season after the "Bellyache Heard Round the World." Also worth appreciating, the patchy ground and clapboard dugout wall signal spring training at Crescent Lake Field, which some years later would be renamed in Huggins' honor. Ruth is clad in the white undershirt familiar from training shots with Lou Gehrig, while Huggins dapperly sports a Mack-like suit-and-hat ensemble...yet has donned Ruth's newfangled visor made famous by tennis champion Helen Wills. But wait, there's more. Babe has a bat that could be worth a million dollars in today's auction market. And Ruth uncharacteristically wears a wrist watch, while Huggins has a fountain pen in his breast pocket. Perhaps the best detail of all is how their mismatched legs are so close as to be touching—a sign of their ease and comfort with each other. The 6-1/2" x 8-1/2" photo gives every indication of Type I status (and would surely be worth more if encapsulated by PSA), including Pacific & Atlantic's reverse paper caption that reads, "BABE AND HUG - Here we have Babe Ruth on the bench with Miller Huggins, resting and talking, during spring training of the Yanks at their park in St. Petersburg, Florida. Hug has on a 'Helen Wills' eyeshade which belongs to Babe." Heavy publication usage wear throughout, with creasing, crop marks, background masking, corner chips/pinholes and a few stains.

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