Two months prior to his passing, Babe Ruth returned to Yankee Stadium for the last time on June 13th, 1948 as part of the 25th anniversary of the opening of “The House That Ruth Built”. Culminating the event, the Yankees retired Babe Ruth's number 3. One by one, his old friends and teammates were introduced to the nostalgic cheers of the capacity crowd. Finally, announcer Mel Allen’s voice boomed from the loudspeakers, “Ladies and Gentleman, George Herman Ruth…Babe Ruth!” Amidst a raucous ovation, the weakened Ruth, frail and ailing with throat cancer, stepped for the last time onto the infield grass, bat in hand, into “the cauldron of sound he must have known better than any other man.” Draped in his old uniform, he struggled forward, helped by the support of the bat borrowed from Bob Feller, to address the crowd of 49,647 as they showered their hero with one final roar of affection and an ebullient singing of “Auld Lang Syne”. Nat Fein was a Press Photographer for the New York Herald Tribune for thirty-three years. In that span he won more press photo awards than any of his contemporaries. Although considered to be one of the greatest human interest photographers in journalism, he carries the distinction of having taken "the most celebrated photograph in sports history." (NY Times, 1992). Fein’s dramatic Babe Ruth image, "The Babe Bows Out", captured at Yankee Stadium on June 13th, 1948 was the first sports picture to win a Pulitzer Prize.
The offered listing is a 16" x 20" version of this very photo which Fien only produced on a very limited basis. Fein's autograph is placed neatly on the bottom corner of the finely matted photograph. The offered print, like all of the other signed editions of "The Babe Bows Out" was personally produced by Fein from the original negative. Full dimensions including the matted borders comes out to 19-1/2" x 24"