Less than 3% of all Babe Ruth signed baseballs that come to auction can be dated to 1920 or before. These are exceedingly rare items, and those that do come to auction are quickly snapped up into private collections.
The players who signed the ball were teammates on the 1920 New York Yankees...and only on the 1920 New York Yankees. They include:
Frank "Lefty" O'Doul
Fred Hofmann
Carl Mays
Herb Thormahlen
Babe Ruth
Jeff Tesreau
Tesreau was not on the Yankees, but at this time he was a coach at Dartmouth. The Dartmouth football team used the Polo Grounds in New York for their football home games in 1920. Thus the connection.
If this ball were single signed by Ruth, given the boldness of the signature, it would likely auction off for $13-15,000.
Interesting side note...the Mays signature dating to 1920. That is the year his pitch killed Ray Chapman. If this ball was signed at the end of the season, it was likely around a month after the fatal pitch.
The ball will come with a COA from Richard Simon and a full LOA from JSA.
Please inquire regarding price.
Thanks for looking!
Tom C