The bat Babe Ruth used to hit home run #500 up for auction in California

When Babe Ruth stepped up to the plate in the top of the second inning at Cleveland’s League Park on Aug. 11, 1929, the Sultan of Swat had tallied 499 career home runs.

Seconds later, Ruth belted a Willis Hudlin fastball over the 40-foot high, right-field fence, establishing a benchmark every Major League power hitter aspires to reach to this day.

Ruth’s 500th home run “left home plate much higher and 10 times faster that it arrived,” New York Times reporter William Brandt wrote for the next day’s sports page.

The bat Ruth used – a 38.4-ounce, 35.25-inch piece of baseball history – can be yours for $750,000 … or $800,000 … or $1 million … or fill in the blank.

On Saturday, Dec. 14, bidding ends on the bat in an auction held by SCP Auctions of Laguna Niguel, the same firm that, in 2004, auctioned the bat Ruth swung to hit the first home run at the then new Yankee Stadium on April 18, 1923.

Ruth’s Yankee Stadium bat fetched a record $1.265 million, but David Kohler, CEO of SCP Auctions, said this marker of his 500th home run could easily sell for more.

“In our business, there is a whole category of people who collect the 500-home-run hitters,” Kohler said. “They collect a signed ball, a bat, maybe a uniform. Well Babe Ruth set that category. He was the charter member.

“Statistics are so big in baseball,” Kohler said. “You’re almost an assured Hall of Famer if you get to that (500 home runs).”

Including Ruth, 27 players have accomplished the feat.

In the mid-1940s, Ruth gifted the bat to Jim Rice, his longtime friend and then mayor of Suffern, NY. The two had become close over the years, spending time together on the golf course and socializing.

Rice died in 1983, and his wife in 1998. But the bat had remained with the family since originally being gifted by Ruth.

The couple’s three children finally decided it was time to sell the prized piece.

“It’s basically been discovered after 75 years,” Kohler said. “None of the public, or any of the collectors or dealers such as us even knew it existed.”

About two years ago, the Rice family took the bat to PSA/DNA, an independent grading and authentication company.

John Taube, the lead model bat expert and authenticator for PSA/DNA, ultimately gave the piece a perfect rating, a 10, according to its criteria.

For starters, Ruth’s friendship with the Rice family is well documented, Taube said. There is also a letter written in 1993 by Rice’s wife to her children, attributing the bat to Ruth’s 500th home run.

Taube said he established the bat’s age by referring to copies of Babe Ruth’s ordering records from Louisville Slugger, the bat’s manufacturer.

“The bat dates to the specific time period when Ruth hit the 500th home run,” Taube said.

The bat’s connection to Ruth is also verified by its distinct markings, he said.

Since Ruth gripped his bats with the brand label turned away, contact marks and grain swelling are obvious on the left barrel, above Ruth’s inscribed name.

Ruth also tended to knock the dirt out of his cleats with the barrel of his bat, leaving cleat impressions.

“This bat has what we call eye appeal,” Kohler said. “There are other Babe Ruth bats. Sometimes they’re cracked. Sometimes they weren’t stored properly.  This is in such great condition, but with all the game use that you would want with the ball marks and cleat marks.”

The Great Bambino went on to hit 46 homers in 1929 and 714 by the end of his career, a statistic most associated with Ruth and known by even casual fans.

Ruth’s bat is among 432 pieces of memorabilia up for bid in the auction, which opened Nov. 27 and ends Saturday.

Other items include the New York Yankees’ 1978 World Series ring given to Mickey Mantle, (expected to earn $75,000-plus); Babe Ruth’s Major League Baseball All-Century Team Tiffany & Co. pocket watch ($60,000-plus); Alex Rodriguez’s game-worn 2009 World Series jersey ($2,500-plus).

But Ruth’s bat is the jewel of the collection.

“What is also well documented is the fact that Ruth gifted many of the great bats that he used during his career,” Taube said. “There are several of these incredible Babe Ruth bats that are out there.  This sits way up there with the upper echelon of memorabilia. It’s an amazing piece.”

To see and bid on any memorabilia in the auction, go to scpauctions.com.