In 1934, Babe Ruth, the Sultan of Swat, was in his final season with the New York Yankees. Offered is a 1934 Quaker Oats Babe Ruth premium 8x9.5", black & white photo. The premium photo was given to members of the Quaker Oats Babe Ruth Baseball Club. The offering was originally an 8x10" photo, but the photo has had approximately a half inch trimmed from the bottom margin. The trimmed area contained the following machine printed wording: "Presented to Members of the Babe Ruth Baseball Club by the Quaker Oaks Company, makers of Quaker Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice." The offered photo was obviously shot earlier than 1934, because Ruth is still trim, not showing the weight of his later seasons. The offered photo demonstrates Ruth's beautifully classic swing, with a two-handed follow-though and his eyes still on the ball hit during batting practice at what appears to be Yankee Stadium. Ruth batted .284 in '34 with 22 home runs and 84 RBIs - a good season for most players, but a far below par campaign for the Bambino. The Babe finished his playing career with a half season of mostly ineffective play with the Boston Braves in '35. 

The displayed photo has both a facsimile Ruth inscription, followed by a facsimile Ruth signature. The facsimile inscription and signature give the impression of being originally written in black fountain ink, showing Ruth's beautiful, flowing penmanship. The photo has a pinhole near the top, most likely used to display the photo. There is some slight darkening overall and some very small paper loss around the pinhole. There are folds on the photo and margins, scratch marks in a number of spots, and a series of small vertical markings intersecting a horizontal marking (scratch mark) of about 1.5" in length in the lower right quadrant of the offering.