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1914 Baltimore News Jack Dunn SGC GOOD 2 - The Man Who Discovered Babe Ruth - Babe Ruth Museum Provenance!
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Reserve Not Met
Year: 1914
Auction: 2023 Fall
Lot #: 2
Auction: Prewar Baseball - 1910s and 1920s Cards
The successes of Babe Ruth are well documented, but less well known is the story of his discovery and the integral part a lifelong baseball man named Jack Dunn played in the origin of one of the game's greatest names. Dunn was a tenacious individual, persevering through an early childhood accident to make the Major Leagues shortly before the turn of the century. After a seven-year playing career at the highest level, Dunn continued in independent and minor leagues, ultimately ending up in Baltimore of the Eastern League as a player-manager, a role in which he is depicted as part of the legendary T206 White Border series. Dunn would go on to purchase the team and continue to manage as Baltimore joined the International League. In 1914, Dunn discovered a lanky schoolboy named George Ruth at the St. Mary's Industrial School For Boys. Ruth, who had been designated a ward of the school at age 7, impressed Dunn enough that he assumed Ruth's legal guardianship in an effort to be able to have Ruth play for his team. As the story goes, Ruth showed up to spring training and was nicknamed "Dunn's baby," which ultimately morphed into the moniker Babe Ruth that is so well known today. With financial pressures brought on by the competing Terrapins, Baltimore's Federal League team, Dunn was forced to sell Ruth to the Boston Red Sox in a move that would shape both men's futures. Dunn used the money to relocate his team and spend years rebuilding, and Ruth went on to incredible success in the Major Leagues. The offered card depicts Dunn as the Orioles' manager, clad in the team's overcoat in the red-and-white image. It is the only example confirmed to exist of Dunn, and it ranks as the second most important card within the extremely rare Baltimore News series behind Ruth himself. Kept together in the same Baltimore-area family since the year of issue, this card, along with the Ruth rookie preceding and the group of thirteen cards in the following lot, were prominently displayed at the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore for more than twenty-five years. The card measures approximately 2-5/8 x 3-5/8 inches. The reverse has home and abroad schedules for the Baltimore team during its 1914 campaign. Graded GOOD 2 by SGC, it presents extremely well. This represents an extremely significant example of Jack Dunn, the Baltimore Orioles manager and the man responsible for discovering Babe Ruth. Opening Bid $10,000.