Tomorrow at noon, Babe Ruth's 1924 American League Batting Title Bat will IPO on Rally. The financial details:
• Market Cap: $255,000
• Number Of Shares: 3,000
• Price Per Share: $85.00
George Herman "Babe" Ruth
The Background
• He wouldn't read this... Ruth is quoted as saying, "Reading isn't good for a ball player's eyes and if my eyes went bad, even a little bit, I couldn't hit home runs. So I gave up reading." Since you aren't Babe Ruth, and you need to know if it's smart to invest in one of his famous bats, read on.
• "Legends never die"… Still considered the best to ever play the game of baseball, it's hard to fathom just how good Babe Ruth was. In 14 seasons between 1918 to 1931, he led or tied the AL in home runs 12 times, hitting 602 home runs. No one else had over 300. He won the World Series 7 times, 3 with Red Sox and 4 with the Yankees.
• The numbers don't lie... Ruth remains top 10 in MLB history in home runs (3rd, 714), batting average (10th, .342), RBI (2nd, 2213), slugging % (1st, .690), on-base % (2nd, .474), on-base plus slugging (1st, 1.164), runs (4th, 2174), total bases (6th, 5793), and walks (3rd, 2062).
• What makes 1924 special?... The Batting Title is awarded to the player with the highest batting average in a given MLB season. While he was the AL home run leader 12 times, Ruth won the Batting Title "only" one time, in 1924, with a .378 batting average.
The Takeaway
• The King of Collectibles... On June 15, 2019, Ruth's Yankees jersey from 1928-1930 sold at auction for $5.64 million, making it the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold. Before the 1928-1930 jersey, another jersey of Ruth's held the record, his 1920 jersey that sold for $4.4 million in 2012.
• Babe's big bats = big bucks... On April 18, 1923, Ruth hit the first home run at the then new Yankee Stadium on opening day. His bat from that day sold for $1.3 million in 2004. The bat Ruth used to hit his 500th home run in 1929 sold at auction for $1 million on December, 14 2019. We like these comps.
• It's going to sell out fast... Shares are already 61% accounted for ($153,850 invested) 16 hours pre-public IPO. We'd love to take credit as fortune tellers, but the truth is that we know this because Rally is trialing VIP early access - VIP's have had access to buy shares since Monday.
• The new normal?... VIP early access is an attempt on Rally's behalf to include more interested buyers who are already users of the platform and may not be able to place their bid tomorrow at noon, but who don't want to miss out on a big IPO. We'll be interested to see if it sticks, and if so, if it comes with a membership fee in the future. Either way, we think it's a great sign for Rally and the industry at large. If we learned anything from VIP early access, it's that the demand is already there for Ruth's bat.
Disclaimer/Update: The author of this article, Russell Lieberman, @russlieberman, purchased shares on 4/17. This article was written on 4/16.
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