Babe Ruth’s 700th Home Run Newspaper Clipping

Lucky Babe and Lucky BoySo fun story. While a friend of mine was tearing apart his house he found a curious form of insulation in the walls: newspaper. Someone had wrapped old newspapers together in butcher paper and sowed the whole package together and sold it as “water proof, vermin proof” insulation. I got a hold of the insulation and painstakingly unstitched the packages to find well-preserved newspapers from 1934. I have no idea what to do with them, but it’s fun to share little gems like this one:

Lucky Babe and Lucky Boy
It was worth $20 to Babe Ruth to get the ball back that he propelled over the wall at Detroit last Friday for the 700th home run of his major league career. Ruth retrieved the ball for a souvenir from Leonard Beals, a boy who caught it outside the park, and gave the lad $20 for it. (The Minneapolis Tribune, July 17, 1934)

Ruth paid about $311 in 2007 dollars for his 700th ball. That cracks me up a bit, given that Barry Bonds record-setting 756th home run ball is worth an estimated half a million bucks.

One thought on “Babe Ruth’s 700th Home Run Newspaper Clipping”

  1. I’ve been trying to do a little research on Babe Ruth’s 700th homerun ball. I have a baseball in my family that has been passed down for years with writing on it – claiming that IT was the 700th homerun ball of Babe Ruth. I had family members (a few generations back) that were at the game in Detroit. (My whole family is from Michigan) If the story on the paper clip is true – Ruth would have hit the ball “out of the stadium” in Detroit? I’m wondering if there is any chance the newpaper clip is not correct. I know you probaby don’t have an answer…but is there any such ball in the Hall of Fame? ..or somewhere it can be authenticated? It sure would be nice to know the history of the baseball that has been in my family for year with the writing on it – that it was the 700th homerun ball of Babe Ruth. Thanks for any thoughts/ideas you have. – Mike

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *