Babe Ruth Signed Auto Autographed Softball Ball COA

This auction is for a rare piece of Babe Ruth memorabilia. This softball was hand signed by 'The Babe' in the summer of 1942 and given to a young boy as a gift. We are now selling the ball for that very boy, Colin Kerr, who has finally decided to part with his gift. Colin and 'The Babe' played with the ball on numerous occasions throughout that summer. We have included some pictures in the auction to show the provenance of the ball. There is a photo of 'The Babe', hand signed and dedicated to Colin's mother, as well as some other candid photos of Ruth in the backyard of Colin's home at a barbecue. These photos are not included in the auction, but we will include copies for the winning bidder in order to keep the history together. We are including a notarized letter from Colin certifying the authenticity of the autograph and the story behind the ball. Please see the copy and photos below. We have a low starting price and no reserve price, so don't miss your chance to bid on this rare item.

"Babe Ruth frequently visited Tuxedo Park, New York in 1942. At age 47, his active baseball career was over, but at that time he was acting, as himself, making a movie called "The Pride of the Yankees."

One of the families he visited during that period was the Wagstaffs - Bucky and Ellen - whose farm was near the Averell Harriman property at Tuxedo Park.

Colin Kerr, five and a half years old, was also staying with the Wagstaffs, with his mother Matheson Kerr. His father George was as that time stationed with the RAF, in Malta, flying missions against Rommel over North Africa.

The Wagstaffs were friends of Jerry Danzig, who had helped Colin and his mother settle in New York for the duration of the Second World War. Matheson Kerr was working for the BSC (British Security Coordination) headed by Sir William Stephenson ("A Man Called Intrepid") working with FDR and the OSS (predecessor to the CIA), organizing the covert transatlantic operation authorized by FDR, before the United States entered the war.

Babe Ruth took five year old Colin under his wing during the summer of 1942 as an "uncle," among other things "protecting" Colin against a cantankerous local groundskeeper nicknamed "Cealy."

One day Babe Ruth presented Colin Kerr with a brand new softball, on which he inscribed "To my little pal Colin - Babe Ruth." The two of them immediately began to throw the softball back and forth, and over the following weeks tossed it around and rolled it over the grass.

Babe Ruth also presented Colin's mother Matheson with an inscribed photograph, which fortunately has been preserved intact. The signatures on the photograph and on the softball are of the same day.

This softball was just a gift from Babe Ruth to a little boy, nothing to do with the game of baseball, and, at the time, unfortunately never treated as if it, or its inscription, should be preserved for posterity. Babe Ruth's signature is legible, but the rest of the inscription, is now, almost sixty-five years later, almost worn off, and the ball is still colored yellow-green from its early use being rolled around the Wagstaff's front yard at Tuxedo Park.

If Babe Ruth's idea was to make a baseball player out of Colin Kerr, it didn't work!"

Missing Photos