My impression's that sports agent Christy Walsh (who represented Lou, Babe, and many others) wanted Gehrig and Chuck Klein as his on-card stars for 1934 Goudey. Walsh might've asked for too much money for Ruth to appear on American cards, so Goudey left him off their domestic 1934 Big League Gum. World Wide Gum, on the other hand, used Ruth in 1933 and 34, so either had a more affordable license or Canadian law gave them more latitude to reuse the Babe's image. This image shows a 1933 WWG sheet with three Ruths, so they took full advantage of what they had! I also wrote about the relationship between Goudey & WWG a few years ago:
https://www.number5typecollection.co...an-goudey.html