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Baseball signed by 1929 Yankees hits auction after being owned by a Benedictine monk
Back in 1929, a group of New York Yankees that included Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig signed a baseball. It ended up in the possession of a Benedictine monk who placed it in his room at St. Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark, N.J. The relic sat there until the unidentified monk died and the ball started a journey among school officials and family members.
Now, more than 80 years later, the baseball has been donated back to St. Benedict's, which is auctioning it off as a fundraising effort to help its 550 students.
"We were excited about the potential this baseball had to help raise funds for our institution and programs," Kevin Moriarty of St. Benedict's told Sports Collectors Digest. "We were thrilled when the baseball was deemed authentic and plans began to get a game plan together to auction the baseball."
The ball is up for bid on eBay until Dec. 13 with a starting bid of $12,500. No one has taken a bite at that price, though, which is a shame for the school's underserved students. In addition to Ruth and Gehrig, the baseball has been signed by other Hall of Famers like manager Miller Huggins, owner Jacob Ruppert Herb Pennock, Tony Lazzeri and Leo Durocher.
This isn't the first time the Stew has run a post on a religious organization profiting from the sale of baseball memorabilia. Back in 2010, a group of Baltimore-based nuns auctioned off a T-206 Honus Wagner card and the winning bid went for $262,000.
This item will obviously come in for a much lower price, but hopefully a generous baseball fan will step up and take the plunge.
Stay warm this winter ...
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