Babe Ruth jersey sells for record $4.4 million Babe Ruth jersey sells for record $4.4 million ADVERTISING Babe Ruth equals big bucks. A baseball jersey worn by The Bambino sold for more than $4.4 million Sunday, a record for any
Babe Ruth jersey sells for record $4.4 million
Babe Ruth equals big bucks.
A baseball jersey worn by The Bambino sold for more than $4.4 million Sunday, a record for any item of sports memorabilia, according to the buyer and seller.
SCP Auctions, based in California, said the circa 1920 New York Yankees uniform top is the earliest known jersey worn by Ruth and it fetched $4,415,658 at the company’s April auction, which ended Sunday. That price broke the previous record of $4,338,500 set in 2010 for James Naismith’s founding rules of basketball.
Lelands.com said it submitted the winning bid for the jersey, which had been displayed for years at The Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum in Baltimore. The road top has “New York” written across the front, and the Hall of Fame slugger wore it shortly after he was sold to the Yankees by the Boston Red Sox for $100,000 following the 1919 season.
Suzan French, a spokeswoman for Lelands.com, said the company plans to sell the jersey privately rather than re-auction it.
In addition, Ruth’s 1934 New York Yankees cap that was owned by former major league pitcher David Wells sold for $537,278 at auction. The colorful Wells bought the cap for about $30,000 from a collector and famously paid homage to his idol by wearing it on the mound with the Yankees during a game on June 28, 1997.
Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor’s New York Giants Super Bowl ring from the 1990 season went for $230,401.
Those items also set records, for a baseball cap and a Super Bowl ring, SCP Auctions said.
Dufner wins Byron Nelson Classic
IRVING, Texas — Jason Dufner made a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole Sunday for a one-stroke victory in the Byron Nelson Championship, his second victory in four weeks.
The winning putt wrapped up a closing 3-under 67 for an 11-under 269 total. Dicky Pride was second.
Dufner got his first PGA Tour victory at New Orleans on April 29, then took a week off to get married. He also led alone by one stroke after the second and third rounds at the TPC at Four Seasons course.
Pride, whose only PGA Tour victory in a 20-year professional career came in 1994, was at 10 under with a par-saving 22-foot putt at No. 18 after hitting his drive into the water.
Munoz wins
Sybase Match Play
GLADSTONE, N.J. —Azahara Munoz beat Candie Kung 2 and 1 to win the Sybase Match Play Championship, a title that was set up when Morgan Pressel was penalized for slow play while in control of their semifinal match.
It was the first LPGA Tour win for Munoz, but this was shrouded in controversy. It also will put more focus on pace of play in golf.
Pressel appeared to take a 3-up lead with a par at the 12th hole at the Hamilton Farm Golf Club. But before she could tee off on No. 13, tour official Doug Brecht informed her that she had violated the tour’s pace of play rule and lost the hole, dropping her lead to 1-up and changing momentum.
Munoz, a former Arizona State star from Spain, then rallied to beat Pressel 2 and 1.
Pressel beat Vicky Hurst 2 and 1 in the third-place match. Kung beat Hurst 2 and 1 in the semifinals.
Colsaerts claimes Volvo Match Play crown
CASARES, Spain —Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts won the Volvo World Match Play Championship, beating Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell 1-up in windy conditions.
Colsaerts, a two-time winner on the European Tour, beat Scotland’s Paul Lawrie in 20 holes in the morning semifinal. McDowell edged Spain’s Rafael Cabrera-Bello 2-up in the other semifinal.
The victory lifted Colsaerts into 10th place in the Ryder Cup points table — the last automatic spot for the European team — but perhaps more importantly demonstrated to team captain Jose Maria Olazabal his prowess at match play ahead of the September matches against the United States in Medinah near Chicago.
Sharapova beats Li to retain Italian Open title
ROME — Maria Sharapova successfully defended her Italian Open title Sunday, beating Li Na 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) in a wild match in which play was twice interrupted by rain and the red clay turned to mud.
The rain proved even more formidable for a men’s final that never happened. Defending champion Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will have to wait until today to settle their championship.
Li appeared on course for victory when she surged to a 6-4, 4-0 lead, but 24 unforced errors from the French Open champion allowed Sharapova to take the next six games and the set.
Sharapova then seemed certain to win when it began to drizzle. The second-seeded Russian took a 4-1 lead in the third, but Li fought back to win four straight games to lead 5-4. Both held serve the rest of the way, forcing a tiebreaker.
After waiting out the rain for two hours in the locker room, the third set was over in five minutes. Sharapova completed the victory in 2 hours, 52 minutes.
Full field set for Indianapolis 500
INDIANAPOLIS — The field is set for the Indianapolis 500. And, more importantly, it’s full.
On an otherwise ho-hum day of qualifying, nine cars made the field on their first attempts, ending any potential last-minute drama and assuring the May 27 race would start with a full field of 33 cars for the 64th consecutive year. Things went almost as smoothly Sunday as race organizers could have expected.
For the first time since 2004, there were no bump attempts — taking away the intrigue of last year’s enthralling finish when Marco Andretti bumped his way into the race by knocking out teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay on the final four-lap qualifying attempt of the month. Heck, there weren’t even any rumors floating around Gasoline Alley about late additions to Indy’s entry list.
Stenhouse wins 3rd straight at Iowa
NEWTON, Iowa — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led for 209 of 250 laps and won the NASCAR Nationwide race at the Iowa Speedway on Sunday, his third straight win on Iowa’s short oval.
Stenhouse, who won both races in Iowa in 2011, picked up his third victory of the season and extended his lead in the points chase to 28 over Elliott Sadler, who was second.
Michael McDowell was third, followed by rookie Austin Dillon and Kurt Busch.
The Sprint Cup event in Charlotte on Saturday kept all Cup regulars except for Busch out of the field. Busch briefly took the lead after starting in the back and saved a top-five finish after being bumped by McDowell on the last lap.
Danica Patrick failed to finish for just the second time this season. Travis Pastrana’s third career Nationwide race ended roughly 50 laps from the finish because of an electrical issue.
By wire sources
