The afternoon of Wednesday August 11, 1926, found the Washington Senators hosting the New York Yankees at Griffith Stadium. The Yankees and Senators were in the midst of a pennant chase, with Washington trying to earn their third consecutive World Series berth and New York fighting hard to regain their dominance in the American League. Washington would sweep that day’s doubleheader, taking each game by the identical score of 5-4. How those same tallies came to be is an entirely different story. The first game saw future Hall of Famers Stan Coveleski and Herb Pennock battle it out on the rubber, with the Sens rallying from a 4-3 deficit with RBI singles from Goose Goslin and Stuffy Stewart in the 6th and 7th innings to get the one-run victory. The Bambino went 1-2 with a double, walk and sac fly.
In the second game, New York jumped out to a two-run lead in the first thanks to a Ruth RBI triple, but Washington roared ahead with a four-run third that sent Yanks starter Waite Hoyt to the showers. Three innings later, The Babe took Sens starter General Crowder deep with a lead-off homer to deep right field. The blast was Ruth’s 346th career home run and #37 of the 47 big flies he would hit in 1926. The Yanks would tie the game at 4-4 in the top of the ninth, sending the game into extra innings. Both "Sad" Sam Jones and General Crowder put up zeros for two innings. Then, in the bottom of the 11th, Washington struck in dramatic fashion when Bennie Tate hit a walk-off, inside-the-park homer off Jones.
Presented here is a ticket stub from the exciting second game of that memorable DH, which has been signed by the Sultan of Swat himself. The rarity of this ticket cannot be overstated. It was practically unheard of in the pre-war era to get players to sign game day tickets; most were just tossed out. Any Ruth signed stub is extremely scarce and only a handful have survived to come up for sale in the market today. The fact that this is an actual ticket used on the day he hit a home run makes it even more special and sought-after.
The used ticket has been torn on its perforated edge but has otherwise been preserved in beautiful condition, presumably because of what is found on its reverse -- a flawless Babe Ruth signature! Ruth’s lovely blue fountain pen stroke practically leaps off the bright yellow cardstock. There are the expected scuffs from wear and age, but nothing to detract from the attractiveness of the signature nor the overall aesthetics of the stub. The combination of Ruth’s autograph on the ticket to a game in which he went deep makes this a truly wonderful piece of baseball history. The stub has been encapsulated and graded PSA GD 2, with Babe's signature getting a grade of 8 from PSA/DNA.