A Very Rare Signed Photograph of Babe Ruth in His Boston Red Sox Uniform

The handful of other known photos of him as a Red Sox player were signed as souvenirs in the 1940s

Babe Ruth was an American original, and undoubtedly the most celebrated athlete of all time. He came to the big leagues as a lefty hurler with the Red Sox, where he won 89 games in six years while setting the World Series record for consecutive scoreless innings. But the Red Sox recognized Ruth’s ability at the plate and began transitioning him to the outfield. In 1918, the Red Sox won their fourth World Series title in seven seasons – Ruth was there for three of them – as Ruth led the American League with 11 home runs while also going 13-7 on the mound. Then in 1919, Ruth set a new single-season record with 29 home runs while recording 113 RBI. He also went 9-5 on the mound.

In what is likely the most famous transaction in baseball history, and nothing short of a disaster for the Red Sox, the Boston team’s owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the New York Yankees for $100,000 following the 1919 season. The next season, Ruth hit 54 home runs with 158 runs scored and 135 RBI, setting the baseball world ablaze with his talent. He would top those numbers in 1921 with 59 home runs, 177 runs scored and 457 total bases. The last two numbers still stand as modern era records.

The Sultan of Swat would lead a powerful and renowned New York squad to seven American League pennants and four World Series titles during his 15 years in New York. He led the American League in home runs 12 times, including his record-setting 60 in 1927 – a mark that stood for 34 years. He became the very symbol of baseball, and an icon of the Roaring Twenties.

This is a 5 by 7 inch sepia photograph of Ruth in his Red Sox uniform, signed and inscribed in a brown fountain pen ink “To Sal, Babe Ruth”. A search of the public sale market shows just two or three signed photos of Ruth in his Red Sox uniform having reached that marketplace. The ones that did appear were souvenir photos signed in the 1940s with the blue ink he used at that time.

So when was this signed? We conjecture that Ruth signed this while still with the Red Sox, which would perhaps make this unique. Here is our basis for this assessment. This is an actual photograph, not card stock, and signed in a brownish fountain pen ink appropriate for the era. Most importantly, it is sepia. Sepia was commonly in use in the 1910s, and sepia toning became the favored method for developing photographs into the 1920s. By 1930, new technology had made sepia all but obsolete. So the photograph is almost surely from 1910s, or the 1920s at the latest.

Ruth would certainly sign this photo as a Red Sox player before he joined the Yankees in 1920, and it seems improbable he would sign a Red Sox photo while with the Yankees in the 1920s. Then the sepia era ended. He might have signed an old sepia photo of him in his Red Sox uniform for souvenir purposes in later years, but the ink color makes this unlikely. Weighing the evidence, we think it fair to assume he was with the Red Sox and signed this between 1914 and 1920.