July 23, 1920 Babe Ruth Photograph by George Grantham Bain (PSA/DNA Type 1)
As the market for sports photographs matures, collectors are becoming increasingly attuned to the nuance that separates good images from great ones. The traditional “Four C's” (Content, Clarity, Contrast and Condition) are a baseline criterion all should abide by in assessing photographs, but astute collectors today are putting increasing value on a fifth “C,” that being Context.
A case in point is the image offered here. Born from the lens and darkroom of George Grantham Bain, the most celebrated and collectible photographer of the first quarter of the twentieth-century game, Babe Ruth is pictured standing in front of the backstop of New York's Polo Grounds. While various markings adorn the back of this 4.75" by 6.5" Culver Pictures sourced image, our research has found another example of this photograph with a date stamp pinpointing its origin to July 23, 1920. The relevance of this exact dating is critically important for full comprehension of the piece.
As Bain's shutter clicked on this scene, baseball was still reeling from the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Just seven months prior, with the game suffering declining attendance and declining credibility, a fateful deal was struck. By destiny’s hand, Babe Ruth was brought to New York City to play on baseball's biggest stage. In desperate need of revitalization, the game's fate rested on the broad shoulders of this 25-year old prodigy who was seven years removed from a Baltimore orphanage. At the dawn of the Roaring Twenties, the stakes could not have been higher for Babe himself and the national pastime at large.
How did Ruth respond to such pressure? He turned baseball on its head. During his first season in New York Ruth clouted 54 homers, surpassing the combined totals of every other team in the majors except one. That same season, Ruth slugged an astonishing .847, a record that stood for more than 80 years. At the time Ruth stood before the lens of Bain on July 23 he had already notched 32 homers that season. Hours later he would crush number 33 into the Polo Grounds cheap seats. The long balls that flew from Babe's bat that season flew in the face of the game's convention, changing its very nature with each successive clout. Not coincidently, in 1920 the Yankees became the first team to draw more than one million fans to a ballpark, more than double the attendance of any other club. Ruth (the highest-paid player in baseball) made such a profound impact that he drove more money into the pockets of owners and other players alike. Years later Hall of Famer Waite Hoyt, a teammate of Ruth's said, "Every big leaguer and his wife should teach their children to pray 'God bless Mommy, God bless Daddy, and God bless Babe Ruth.'" In the media capital of the world, the combination of Ruth's boundless charisma and unmatched slugging prowess elevated him to a level of popularity in his day greater than that of any public figure in American history.
Taken precisely during the most pivotal period in baseball history, the offered photo captures the essence of a man in the process of almost single-handedly picking up America's Game by its bootstraps and restoring its National pride. At the height of his calling, Ruth’s supreme confidence is conveyed in his stance, his posture, and most of all, his eyes. It is the countenance of a man destined for greatness.
The photograph presents beautifully with unobtrusive condition faults confined to its wide margins, most notably a small tear at the left edge. Measures 4.75" by 6.5". A PSA/DNA Type 1 LOA accompanies.
