Offered is a Babe Ruth signed photo picturing him in his 1921 New York Yankees home uniform at Yankee Stadium. The photo is inscribed "To My Friend Joe Lannan From Babe Ruth Oct 28th, 1926." Joe Lannan was one of the organizers of a 1926 mid-western barnstorming tour stop in Iron Mountain, Michigan, in the upper peninsula. Ruth and his manager, Christy Walsh, left Des Moines, Iowa, on October 27, after that day's game, traveling by rail throughout the night to Beloit, Wisconsin, and then on to Oshkosh by automobile, where they were met by Ted Kingsford and Joe Lannan, who brought them to Iron Mountain just in time for the exhibition on the 28th. It was quite a trek across a number of what were extremely rural roads in Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan in the 1920s.
Just ten days after the last game of the 1926 World Series, on Wednesday, October 20, 1926, Ruth was signed to play in the Iron Mountain game in what was termed “the greatest baseball attraction ever to be staged in the upper peninsula” in an article appearing in The Iron Mountain News the following day. The game itself devolved into a batting exhibition, as recounted in a later article in the paper.
Babe Ruth, who has been more or less intimately identified with the New York Yankees and home runs during the past few years, dropped over from Des Moines, Ia., yesterday afternoon to hoist a goodly number of Mr. Spaulding’s official cork centers over the fence of the Athletic Park and incidentally give an assemblage of some 3,000 enthusiastic fans their money’s worth and a bit more. Well over a dozen balls were sent outside the yard by the prodigious Babe, including one clout of the home run variety with two on base. But that was while they were still playing something that resembled baseball. In the seventh inning – (or was it the sixth? – who knows, or cares?) the Bambino came to the plate and remained there for 15 minutes or so showering the outfield with horsehide until his brow became damp in spite of a cool breeze and the arm of [pitcher] LaForest began to weary. The ball game had been forgotten, but the crowd – the biggest in recent years at the park – wended its way home satisfied.
The photo measures 8 x 10 inches and presents mounted on cardboard from period framing. Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from Beckett Authenticated. Ruth's signature grades a solid 8, but for a bit of ink pooling. Excellent condition.