Babe bat a tax ache for Shoreline couple
Published 9:00 pm Sunday, May 13, 2001
Associated Press
SHORELINE – Retired truck driver Larry May was thrilled when he won a bat signed by Babe Ruth in his last appearance at Yankee Stadium in a contest this year.
But now his prized possession is on the market. May says he can’t afford the $35,000 in taxes that go with it.
He tried the online auction site eBay, but the highest bid to come in by Friday’s deadline was just $18,700. The bat has been appraised at $107,000.
May rejected the eBay bid – and two telephone offers that approached six figures. He also turned down a bid from Hall of Famer Bob Feller, who also signed the bat.
“It’s a one-shot deal, and we have to handle it right,” he said. “I think I know better than to throw it away.”
May, 62, and his wife, Sally, have been visiting schools around the state, displaying the bat.
“All my life I’ve admired my wife doing things with kids,” said May, whose wife – a school secretary honored for her work with children – plans to retire this summer. “Now I have that chance, and when I’m paired up with her, by golly, it’s fun. The kids are what make it special.”
The bat is a big hit with the Mays’ 11 grandchildren, who have posed with it for Little League team photographs.
They’re also showing off their original version of Nat Fein’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Ruth leaning on the bat at home plate in 1948. May won the picture along with the bat, but the photo’s not for sale.
Ruth used the bat when the Yankees retired his No. 3. Weak from cancer that would kill him two months later, he stopped at the Cleveland dugout and grabbed the bat, which belonged to Feller. He took a few swings for photographers before leaning on it for support.
He signed the bat after the ceremony at the request of Cleveland first baseman Eddie Robinson, who eventually gave the bat to noted baseball collector Barry Halper.
When Halper auctioned his collection through Sotheby’s in September 1999, the weeklong event generated $21.8 million.
Baseball-card company Upper Deck spent nearly $1 million at the auction, buying the bat and nine other items to give away over a 10-week period. The only items considered more valuable than the bat were a 1928 Ty Cobb jersey valued at $332,500 and a 1927 Lou Gehrig jersey valued at $305,000.
“You can’t justify keeping an item where taxes are three years’ salary,” said Dave Bushing, a Chicago-based buyer and authenticator for Mastro Fine Sports, an auction house. “It’s almost a curse to win it.”
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