BABE "THE SULTAN OF SWAT" RUTH - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED CHECK 10/17/1938 - HFSID 350330

BABE RUTH
The Great Bambino signs a check for $190
Check filled by Ruth and signed: "G H Ruth", 1p, 8x3. October 17, 1938. Drawn on the Chemical Bank & Trust Company. Check number 4529 for $190.00. Ink bleed affecting "h" in the last name, otherwise fine condition. Few would contest that Babe Ruth (1895-1948) was the greatest baseball player who ever lived. While his record for career home runs (714) has been surpassed by Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds, and his single season mark of 60 by four players, many other records stand unchallenged. One of the new statistics devised to measure baseball value perhaps says it best: Wins Above Replacement (WAR). How many more games did his team win by having the Babe on its roster instead of a replacement-level player? Over his career, his teams won 190 more games with him than they would have won in his absence, and he had the American League's best WAR in 12 seasons: two with the Boston Red Sox (1916, 1919), and 10 with the New York Yankees between 1920 and 1931. His other annual stats follow the same pattern: continuing leadership in on base percentage, slugging percentage, runs scored and runs batted in. While not a speedy fielder in his later years, he boasted a shotgun arm. Although his final season with the Boston Braves (1935) was an anti-climax, he led the Boston Red Sox to two World Championships and the New York Yankees to five more. His trade from Boston to New York heralded the Yankees' emergence as baseball's greatest dynasty. To add to his value, Ruth was a first-rate pitcher for six seasons before his even greater value as an everyday hitter was realized. (Here's a trivia question: What pitcher has the best career won-lost record against the Yankees? Answer: Babe Ruth.) He entered the Hall of Fame in 1936, the first year of his retirement. More than six decades after his death, Ruth remains a larger-than-life figure, in America and abroad, remembered as "the Sultan of Swat" or simply "the Bambino." Accompanied by PSA/DNA LOA.