(LOT 57)
1925-31 W590 "Babe" Ruth (King of the Bat) Hand-Cut PSA 4 VG-EX – POP 1; Highest PSA Graded Example!
POP 1 KING OF THE BAT!!! One of the rarest Babe Ruth strip cards is his 1925-31 W590 "King of the Bat" subject, presented here in a stand-alone PSA 4 VG-EX holder. Seldom do we have the opportunity to use the term remarkable for a VG-EX card, but considering PSA has encapsulated 12 examples, with 11 of them residing in Authentic holders, this unique and highest graded marvel is truly remarkable from a PSA population report perspective. Synonymous with the Bambino's stature as baseball's pinnacle all-time player comes this supreme rarity that hasn't been publicly sold for some five years.

The W590 strip set consists of an undetermined number of popular sports stars and Hollywood personalities, with Ruth being the most celebrated subject. Further enhancing the Babe's W590 stature is the classic batting pose also used for one of Ruth's ultra-rare 1920 Headin' Home cards. Of utmost significance, while a majority of century old "W" strip cards carry Authentic assessments due to manual hand-cuts encroaching on the factory-issued lines, this PSA 4 just happens to be the sole PSA specimen deemed to reflect an accurate cut from the original strip. The Sultan of Swat's classic batting pose is truly imposing, with no notable surface blemishes on either side, and the even corner wear consistent with the grade. Appropriately dubbed "King of the Bat" across the lower border, by 1925, Ruth had already established himself as baseball's greatest player via his unprecedented assault on ballpark fences, with the great Bambino having already clouted 235 homers as a member of the New York Yankees from 1920-1924.

His first two seasons in the Big Apple resulted in 54 and 59 round-trippers, respectively, and he led all of major league baseball in OPS those first five Yankee campaigns. In 1925, the year this extremely scarce strip card was first issued, Ruth played in only 98 games, primarily due to what was historically dubbed "the bellyache heard around the world". Heading into spring training in March 1925, his weight had risen to a staggering 260 pounds. The Babe eventually collapsed in Asheville, North Carolina, and was ultimately sent to a New York hospital where he was rumored to have died, prompting an inadvertent obituary in a New York periodical! Going through a period of mental disturbance, convulsions, and stomach issues, Ruth missed nearly two months of play.

His final 1925 statistics would show only 359 official at-bats, resulting in a mere 25 home runs and .290 batting average, the worst figures of his Yankee tenure until his final 1934 New York campaign. Historically significant, this ultra-obscure strip card was first issued during a season where no mainstream Ruth cards exist, with the only other 1925 cards representing the great Sultan of Swat being a few Exhibit Supply subjects. In typical Ruthian fashion, he would bounce back with reckless abandonment the following 1926 season, leading the Junior Circuit with 47 homers, 154 RBIs, and a sensational 1.253 OPS, joining forces with a young Lou Gehrig to lead the Yankees back to the 1926 World Series. One of the most underrated Ruth cards extant, this W590 one of a kind and finest PSA 4 numerical grade is tantamount with Babe Ruth's unparalleled standing as our national pastime's greatest player to ever grace a baseball diamond!

MIN BID $3,000
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