Babe Ruth's 1918 contract for $5,000 sells for $1.02 million

Babe Ruth's 1918 contract for $5,000 sells for $1.02 million
(Image credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

That’s an expensive piece of paper: Babe Ruth's 1918 contract with the Boston Red Sox sold on Saturday for more than $1 million.

About 36 pieces of Ruth memorabilia went on the auction block, one day after the 100th anniversary of his major league debut. The contract was for $5,000, but sold for $1.02 million, which ESPN says is the highest price ever paid for a sports contract. It wasn't the only item to bring in a lot of money: a bat Ruth used early in his career went for $215,000, while a signed ball sold for $96,000 (insert a joke about The Sandlot here).

One piece of history that didn't find a new owner was the first ball Ruth hit for a home run at Yankee Stadium; that item didn't meet its reserve price of $100,000.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.