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Oversized Babe Ruth Day Vintage Photo Signed by Photographer Nat Fein
The best specimen of possibly the most famous baseball photograph ever taken. This heart-rending b&w image of Babe Ruth's sad farewell to Yankee Stadium was taken by New York Herald Tribune photographer Nat Fein on June 13, 1948, just weeks before the Babe's death at a ceremony honoring the Sultan of Swat at the house that he "built", and one can almost feel the air hanging heavy with mournfulness as a withered Ruth stands alone on the third baseline, cap at his side, bat at his feet during the national anthem. As can be seen in the photo, the field was swarming with photographers that day, but Fein was one of the few who took pictures of the scene from behind, effectively capturing the former hulk with his spindle legs and wasted body, pent with pain. Thus, Babe is presented from the viewpoint that he himself was seeing, at the center of a vast universe of adoration. The sharpness and clarity of his figure and the #3 on his broad back is underscored by a gradually fuzzier background in which the current Yankees lineup on the first baseline and the packed stadium, festooned with championship banners, looms over him. Not seeing Ruth's face clearly adds to the emotional undertow and allows the observer to preserve Ruth eternally as the young happy-go-lucky manchild. Fein used natural light on that overcast day, which was essential for these emotional undercurrents to come out, such as the bleak white sky above the stadium's roof and flags. Titled "The Babe Bows Out" when it ran in the paper, the picture was awarded the esteemed Pulitzer Prize for the best news photograph of the year. Gallery quality image is a true rarity. The extremely limited quality gallery edition photograph was printed around 1948 (and signed then as well) and printed from the original negative. Sized to 16 x 20", it was signed by Fein in blue ink on the lower right border of the white matting on which the photo is mounted. Photo is NRMT and preserved under glass in the original red frame sized overall to 21 x 25". The matting is somewhat soiled but the photo can be removed and re-matted in a new display if need be. The finest edition of this photograph we have ever seen. Contributors are the size, quality, vintage signature, and the fact that it is a vintage print. This combination is as unbeatable as the multi-dimensional athlete, Babe Ruth himself.
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