Babe Ruth Signed by Braves 1914 (not quite)
 

I have been donating to the Baseball Hall of Fame for over 20 years. One of the nice perks of the membership is a magazine called Memories & Dreams. It has wonderful articles about all aspects of baseball.

In the latest issue it has an article about the collection of Garry Herrmann (owner of the Reds). This man seemed to save everything. There was 150 boxes donated to the HOF.

One of the more interesting items was a telegraph that Herrrmann received from the owner of the Braves telling him how he turned down an offer from the Baltimore Orioles for shortstop Claude Derrick and a promising young pitcher Babe Ruth for $16,000. He told the Orioles the price was too high, the Orioles asked for an offer and never gave them one in return.

It is information like this that makes my love of baseball grow even more.

Just wanted to share, hope more people donate to the HOF.

Lee

Definitely a fascinating piece of information. Thanks for sharing!

Chad

I’ve considered donating to the HOF, but my understanding is that what I might give them would be locked away in a filing cabinet or a drawer somewhere and likely would never see the light of day again. Am I wrong on that?

Steve,

If you are talking about donating items, I believe you are correct. From my understanding it is only a small percentage of what they have is on display. Some does get rotated out but a much of the displayed items are permanent.

I have been giving cash donations over the years. I think you would have to have something really unique for them to accept as a donation. Hoping it goes on display I think is pretty minimal.

Do not regret donating all these years and will continue to do so.

Lee

Lee, that is a real cool fact. Someone should write a book about Babe had they accepted to offer and Babe went off to the Braves.

I was once in deep discussion to loan (long term), my 524 card t206 to the HOF for display. After several weeks of discussion, they ultimately declined, concluding that being so large, the set would overwhelm the other baseball card and it would also place too much emphasis on one era/period of baseball. I was disappointed, but I fully understand (and actually agree with) the logic.

Here is a nice write up of the telegram story, with photos:

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...red-babe-ruth/

It appears Ruth was available to all the teams at the right price.

Thanks Lee. I totally misunderstood your post.

Putting aside the never ending belly aching about who is in or out of the HOF, I am a huge fan of that wonderful place and should be supporting them. And now I will.

Thanks, I never heard about that before. I guess you could call it the Boston Braves curse...notice that after their 1914 World Series win the Boston Braves never won another one. Here is what the Braves missed out on:

Attachment 596392


Brian

That's weird.
When I went in 75, they had the entire Topps set in a huge rotating display. Probably uncut sheets, but I don't remember.
The few old judges they had were in small frames in a dark corner of the stairwell....