Consign Your Best Items with Lelands. We Also Pay Cash on the Spot! Learn More Here.
Incredible Lou Gehrig Signed Photo with Babe Ruth
The relationship between the Yankee godheads is nearly as fascinating as the prodigious feats they accounted for on the field, and this rare-as-it-gets Gehrig signed photograph of he and Ruth in their pinstripes circa the late 1920s only adds fuel to the fire about how they really felt about each other. While we'll likely never know for sure, the body language of the two most famous athletes of their era looks anything but comfortable in the 7 1/4 x 9 1/2" b&w photo signed by Gehrig in black pen against the white of his uniform pants and shirt. Neither man was able to muster much of a smile, with Gehrig's attempt seeming more like a pained sneer. While Babe stiffly holds a bat at his side and props his other hand on his waist, Lou's hands are tightly jammed into his back pockets. And the distance between the two, while only a matter of inches, may as well be a mile and a half -- as it was often on the ballfield, where their storied feud broke out into an ugly sore when Gehrig started avoiding Ruth at the plate after the Babe had homered, instead remaining in the on-deck circle taking practice cuts. The feud, which cropped up at about the time this photo was taken, grew for a variety of reasons that have stoked the rumor mill for the last 80 years and culminated in some way-out theories. The easiest explanation is that the two simply clashed on a personal level, with the conservative and prissy Gehrig always offended by the sybaritic Ruth's excesses and violations of the rules. Others maintain he was jealous that Babe was a lightning rod for attention, overshadowing many of Lou's own accomplishments -- the classic example being the '32 World Series, when Ruth's "called shot" was immediately followed by Lou slamming a homer, too, which few even mentioned. (Gehrig had to share the blame for that, however, since he may have actually coined the famous phrase for Ruth's blast, telling the press afterward that "the big monkey sure called his shot, didn't he?") On a more intimate level, there are the stories about Lou taking offense at Babe's remarks about Gehrig's mother, whom Lou revered, and about either a woman friend of Gehrig's -- or about Gehrig's own wife, whom some latter-day historians (revisionists?) maintain Babe may have had an affair with. The latter seems rather implausible, given the fact that the two men did patch things up later on, something one cannot imagine Gehrig doing if the story were true. Indeed, the feel-good moment in this epic drama was the bear hug Ruth embraced a dying Gehrig with after the latter's sad "luckiest man on the face of the earth" speech on July 4, 1939. That gesture seemed to put an end once and for all to the feud, and lift a mountain of guilt about it off their shoulders. Gehrig's signature is a great exemplar of this famous marker, bold and graceful with a loop flourishing the first letter of his first and last name. The signature grades a hearty 9 out of a possible 10 -- and how much better can it get than it's on a photo this evocative and rare? The photo itself is EX-MT (NRMT in appearance) with a small tear at the top center and another in the lower right hand corner, both of which are hardly visible unless at very close range. Photo is mounted within a lavish, three-border display (silver, brown marble and charcoal) and under glass in an excellent condition frame sized to 17 1/2 x 20". If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one is worth an entire novel.
Past Sports Card, Memorabilia, Non-Sports Card and Collecitble Auction Items
Other past auction items that may be of interest to you.
Lou Gehrig Signature Display (15x18" framed)
Circa 1938 Lou Gehrig Signed Photograph (8x10")
1949 The Pride of the Yankees Lobby Card Set and Press Book (9)
Rawhide One-Sheet Movie Poster (27x41”) and Sheet Music
Lou Gehrig Signed Ripley’s Testimonial Dinner Program
1928 Lou Gehrig Signed Baseball
Lou Gehrig Signed Photo
