My parents neighbors sent me a picture of their dads Babe Ruth signed ball.
We are going to go through Hunt Auctions to sell the lot plus this ball.
Take a look, what do you think?
I do know that model ball was around back when the Babe was playing. It’s hard to tell from the picture. The signature is a different color and seems to have faded differently from the “Homerun” and “Spalding”, so that’s a good thing. The only thing that gives me pause is the way the signature is around the stitches.
Thoughts?
-K-
mojobeardy.wordpress.com 
Judging by what I see on the web, that part of the ball may be a facsimile. The ones at auction are signed on the opposite side sweet spot. Here’s a link:http://mar10.hugginsandscott.com/cgi-bin/showitem.pl?itemid=19663
There are a whole lot more fakes than real ones. The guy on the following story bought his ball from a guy that got the ball from Babe Ruth. When he tried to PSA it they told him that it did probably come from Babe Ruth but he had a secretary that signed balls for him that he handed out. His ball was one signed by the secretary.
It is a bunch of reading before you get to the Ruth ball, sorry.
http://thoughtsandsox.blogspot.com/2010/01/i-didnt-need-to-know-that.html?m=1
No matter what we are sending it to Hunt acutions and they will do the authentication.
I was going to say the same thing the other ones said in that it almost looks like a stamp but it is hard to tell from that pic
I will get to see it in person this weekend, and will hopefully get a better sense.
Sorry but this is a mass produced ball by Spaulding. This is the Babe Ruth Home Run Special, it was manufactured around 1925-1935. They actually made a baseball glove too that was part of the same line. Here are a number of auctions over the last 10 years that show that exact same ball (though these actually have Ruth’s autograph), the last auction I have added is from only a few months ago,
http://sep10.hugginsandscott.com/cgi-bin/showitem.pl?itemid=25718
http://sep10.hugginsandscott.com/cgi-bin/showitem.pl?itemid=25837
http://mar10.hugginsandscott.com/cgi-bin/showitem.pl?itemid=19663
http://www.legendaryauctions.com/LotDetail.aspx?lotid=69716
http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/Auction_Item.asp?Auction_ID=38294&c=%5CAutographed%5CSports%5C&t=Closed&p=0&s=CurrBid+DESC%2C+RandNo+ASC
http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/auction/2011/1067.html
http://www.memorylaneinc.com/site/bid/bidplace.asp?itemid=158
http://www.gottahaveit.com/LotDetail.aspx?lotid=1818
A couple of things you will notice is, the signature is off in appearance from a real Ruth autograph, this is because a designer created a stamp and it was not based on his real autograph. Second, the location of the signature on these balls is always directly above the “Home Run Special”. The stamps were added before the ball was stitched, you can see that had this been an actual signature in ink, the capital “R” in his last name goes right over 2 red stitches and 2 blue stitches yet none of them show ink bleeding across the thread.
I know this is a case where you want it to be real but unfortunately it is not. I actually found an auction on eBay where someone is selling the original paper advertisement for the ball and gloves from a catalog.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1928-ad-Reach-Babe-Ruth-Home-Run-Special-Baseball-Gloves-Catchers-Mitt-/120862129833?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c23f1bea9
On the positive side, it is an 80+ year old ball and someone may be willing to pay something for it.
Apparently it has signatures on the sides and back. I will get to see it in person Saturday, there is hope for a real signature yet.