A rare photo from Babe Ruth’s first appearance with the Baltimore Orioles will be offered for sale at Leland’s Fall Classic Auction 2024 and could fetch more than $200,000.

When most people think of The Great Bambino, images of him in Yankees pinstripes often come to mind. Whether cozying up to Lou Gehrig or swinging a bat in front of a roaring crowd, Babe Ruth is most associated with his time in New York between 1920 and 1934. But years before that, and even before he played with the Boston Red Sox, that Babe Ruth notoriously traded him to the Yankees and ‘cursed’ themselves for a generation, while Babe Ruth played for the minor league (at the time) Baltimore Orioles.

Very few images of Ruth from 1914 exist, but one photo in Leland’s 2024 Fall Classic Auction shows a 19-year-old Babe Ruth with his teammates, and experts believe the photo could sell for more than $200,000.

In the photo, Ruth poses with the rest of his team in front of the backstop; standing on the end and leaning on one of his teammates. Ruth played only three months in Baltimore before switching to the Boston Red Sox, and at the time he was making $100 a week as a baseball player.

Although the photo itself has a torn corner and other signs of a century of aging, it is undeniably a cool piece of history. Often considered among the best of all time, Ruth memorabilia often sells incredibly high at collector’s auctions. According to Robb reporta 1914 card of Ruth on the Orioles from the same year the photo was taken fetched $7.2 million at auction. Earlier this year, the sweater Ruth wore during his famous “call shot” sold for $24 million.

This photo is up for auction again after previously selling for $190,373 in 2019. Before that, the statue was kept in a private collection after it first appeared publicly in the 1990s.

It’s hard to deny the impressive piece of sporting history captured in the photo. And as the saying goes, “How can you not be romantic about baseball?” The auction is currently live on Leland’s website and runs until October 19th.

Image credits: Lelands