Some of Ruth's Last Jersey & Pants are Auction Homer

Anonymous buyer pays record sum for Babe's Dodger coaching uniform

Though his name is synonymous with the New York Yankees, Babe Ruth played for several other teams in his fabled baseball career, most notably the Boston Red Sox. Before his retirement the Babe coached some. And the uniform he wore while serving as first-base coach for the Brooklyn Dodgers just proved to be a smash hit at auction. One might even say it was a Ruthian home run.

An anonymous bidder paid $270,000 for the Spalding jersey and pants that were the road uniform Babe wore in 1938 for Brooklyn. The uniform was one of 900 items of sports memorabilia up for auction Saturday at the Louisville Slugger Museum in Kentucky, according to the Courier-Journal.

More from the paper:

Hunt Auctions, a Pennsylvania-based company that handled the auction, said the price paid for the famous slugger's Spalding jersey and pants was a record for a coach's uniform.

"Babe Ruth proved once again he is larger then life," said David Hunt, president of Hunt Auctions. "The prices realized today for the Ruth uniform among others are an excellent indication of the resilience of the sports memorabilia market in the face of a difficult economy."

Ruth wore the uniform during one season as a first-base coach with the Dodgers. The jersey has Ruth's name stitched inside near the manufacturer's tag and shows very little wear. A 1939 World's Fair patch also is sewn on the left sleeve.

The anonymous buyer, who bid by telephone, will pay $310,500 when auction fees are included.

Other items offered at the auction included boxing memorabilia from the likes of Rocky Graziano and Louisville's most famous son, Muhammad Ali.

(Photo by Arza Barnett, The Courier-Journal)