Any bat signed by the Babe Ruth is a rare gem but this particular piece of lumber represents an amazing feat by the American icon that many may not remember. It was the summer of 1926 when The Babe already on top of the world did something nobody had ever done or even attempted—catch a baseball dropped from an airplane. The site was Mitchel Field an Air Force base in Garden City NY on Long Island some 25 miles from The House That Ruth Built.

With a classic news photograph the New York Times showed Ruth with his baseball glove in an open field donning an Army uniform to promote military camps for civilians. In a plane flown by Captain Harold McClelland six baseballs were dropped from 1000 feet up while Ruth drenched in sweat ran all over the field in the blistering heat trying to catch them. Air blasts from the propeller carried each ball well out of reach. “It was from a height of 300 feet” according to the 7/23/1926 Times article “that Captain McClelland tossed the seventh ball. The Babe got under it steadied himself and neatly caught it. A cheer went up for the exploit. Then the Babe wringing wet went to the officers’ club for a bath and a change of clothing. The officers congratulated him and said if there should be another war and New York should be bombed they would have Ruth assigned to defense work catching enemy bombs.”

Overseeing this publicity stunt was Colonel Benjamin Delahauf Foulois whose decorated military career and early aviation feats working with the Wright Brothers make for an impressive Wikipedia page. As Foulois himself recalled "The last I saw of the Babe he was slowly flexing his burning hand and trying to smile about it as he left in a big limousine." Not only was Foulois reportedly gifted the actual ball that Ruth caught but he also received this 35-inch H&B Babe Ruth retail model bat (33 oz.) with a lovely Ruth signature (8/10) in black pen inscribed to “B.D. Foulois.” Few pieces in the hobby tell a story this grand.

Full LOA's from PSA/DNA and JSA.