Ball Babe Ruth signed for sick fan sells for $250,000

WESTHAMPTON, N.Y., Feb. 10 (UPI) -- A baseball legendary Yankee Babe Ruth signed for a sick child with a promise to "knock a homer" sold for $250,000 at a New York State auction.

Pete Siegel, co-founder of Gotta Have It! collectibles, put in the winning bid for the ball Thursday at Grey Flannel Auctions in Westhampton and said the famous baseball will be the star attraction of his planned New York Yankees museum, the New York Post reported Monday.

"We're big Yankees fans," Siegel said. "There's nothing like the Yankees, no individual sports franchise like the Yankees, with this kind of great history."

Ruth famously signed the ball for ailing fan Johnny Sylvester during the 1926 World Series and inscribed it with a promise: "I'll knock a homer for you in Wednesday's game."

Ruth kept his promise, hitting three home runs during the game, and Sylvester eventually recovered from his illness.

Johnny Sylvester Jr. said he doesn't believe his father, who died in 1990 at the age of 70, would object to his selling the ball.

"I thought long and hard about it," he told the Post Sunday. "He was very reserved about the whole matter. If somebody asked him, he would have [told] the story. But he didn't go out of the way to tell it."