1933 Sport Kings Babe Ruth #2

Every champion in one set

In 1933 the Goudey Gum Company of Boston launched its Big League Chewing Gum baseball cards and, the same year, a second line called Sport Kings Gum. Instead of one sport it took in nearly all of them: 48 cards of champions from baseball, football, golf, boxing, hockey, basketball, tennis, swimming, horse racing, wrestling, cycling, aviation and dog-sled racing. PSA describes the set as covering more than 15 sports; one dealer's guide counts 18.

The cards match Goudey's baseball cards in size, 2 3/8 by 2 7/8 inches, and in paper. Each front has a solid color background, a painted portrait, a red 'Sport Kings Gum' banner across the top and the athlete's name in a black strip at the bottom, with a small silhouette of the sport above it. The backs give the name, the sport and a biography in green ink, with an ad for the gum.

Sport Kings sold for a penny a pack in corner stores and on newsstands, like the baseball cards, but as a separate product. They were printed in smaller quantities and distributed nationally at a much lower rate, which accounts for much of their scarcity today. The first 24 cards came out in late 1933. Card backs show that at least some of the last 24 came in 1934: jockey Jack Westrope's card mentions him losing his apprentice rating in January 1934, and aviator James Wedell's describes a December 1933 flight through a blizzard.

Ruth's company

The set opens with Ty Cobb at #1 and Babe Ruth at #2. Football follows quickly with Red Grange at #4 and Jim Thorpe at #6, and Knute Rockne appears at #35; PSA treats all three as football rookie cards. Golf has Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and Bobby Jones; boxing has Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney; hockey has Eddie Shore and Howie Morenz. Johnny Weissmuller, Bill Tilden and Jimmy Doolittle are here too, and the set includes some of the earliest basketball cards.

Two women appear: Babe Didrikson, the 1932 Olympic track champion, on card #45 (her name spelled 'Didrickson'), and swimmer Helene Madison at #37. The set ends with Leonhard Seppala, the musher whose dog team helped relay diphtheria medicine across Alaska in the 1920s.

Carl Hubbell, at #42, is the only active ballplayer besides Ruth. He led the New York Giants to the 1933 championship, and in the 1934 All-Star Game he struck out Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin in a row. One collector-historian argues that the #42 slot was first meant for Nap Lajoie, whose orphaned artwork then became the famous 1933 Goudey #106.

The Babe in 1933

Ruth was 38 in 1933, and a dealer guide to the set calls him arguably the most recognizable person on the planet that year. He hit .301 with 34 home runs, a .442 on-base percentage and a .582 slugging percentage, and he led the American League with 114 walks. Baseball-Reference credits him with 104 RBI; Wikipedia gives 103. The Yankees finished second, seven games behind Washington. His salary was $52,000, down from $75,000 the year before.

On July 6, 1933, Connie Mack started him in right field in the first All-Star Game, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Ruth hit the first home run in All-Star history, a two-run shot off Bill Hallahan in the third inning, and the American League won 4-2. In the last game of the season the Yankees had him pitch as a publicity stunt; he threw a complete game and beat the Red Sox, his final appearance on the mound.

His time as a full-time Yankee was nearly over. He hit .288 with 22 home runs in 1934, hit his 700th home run on July 13 of that year and took a pay cut to $35,000. On February 26, 1935, the Yankees traded him to the Boston Braves. A year later he entered the Hall of Fame's first class, named on 215 of 226 ballots.

One Ruth, not four

Goudey's 1933 baseball set has four Ruth cards. Sport Kings has one. Its pose is unique to the set: Ruth from the waist up against a gold-green background under the bright red banner. PSA rates it about as difficult as the #149 Ruth in the baseball set and notes that it is rarely offered in PSA 8 or better.

Condition problems are typical of the issue. Copies are often centered toward the bottom or cut at a slight angle, the colorful fronts show surface wear and fading, and ink from the front often bleeds through to the back. A collector-historian suggests Goudey used Sport Kings to get one more Ruth card out in 1933 before its license to use his image ran out; that is his reading, not a documented fact.

It is also far scarcer than the baseball Ruths. One dealer's guide put the graded total near 600, against roughly 1,200 to 1,700 for each Ruth in the baseball set. PSA's report now lists two PSA 9s, 22 PSA 8s, 32 PSA 7s and 137 PSA 1s, among others.

The market for card #2

A 2017 hobby article reported that two PSA 8s sold in 2016, each for between $55,000 and $60,000. Prices then climbed sharply. In PSA's sales record a PSA 8 sold for $114,000 in December 2020 and another for $210,000 in May 2021, the highest price recorded for the card. One PSA 8 brought $193,295 in December 2021 and resold for $121,295 in September 2023.

PSA 7s, the grade of this entry, have ranged widely. One certificate sold for $96,000 in May 2021 and again for $49,200 in July 2021. Another brought $90,000 in January 2022. In June 2025 a PSA 7 was the top lot of a monthly auction at $48,000, and an online sale of a PSA 7 was recorded at $58,000 in May 2025.

Low grades have their own market. In PSA's record, PSA 1 copies have sold for between $2,250 and $4,501 since 2021, and a PSA 5 brought $23,400 in December 2022.

The numbers

1933 batting

137 G, 459 AB, 97 R, 138 H, 21 2B, 3 3B, 34 HR, 104 RBI, 114 BB (AL lead), .301 BA, .442 OBP, .582 SLG. All-Star.

1933 pitching

1 G, 1 CG, 1-0, 9 IP, 12 H, 5 ER, 5.00 ERA

1932 batting

133 G, 156 H, 41 HR, 137 RBI, 130 BB (AL lead), .341 BA, .489 OBP, .661 SLG

1934 batting

125 G, 105 H, 22 HR, 84 RBI, 104 BB, .288 BA, .537 SLG. All-Star.

1933 salary

$52,000 (1932: $75,000; 1934: $35,000)

Career (1914-1935)

22 seasons, 2,503 G, 2,873 H, 714 HR, 2,214 RBI, 2,174 R, 2,062 BB, .342 BA, .474 OBP, .690 SLG

Hall of Fame

Inaugural class, 1936; 215 of 226 ballots

Timeline

1. Feb 6, 1895

   George Herman Ruth is born in Baltimore.

2. 1919

   Enos Gordon Goudey founds the Goudey Gum Company in Boston.

3. 1927

   Ruth hits 60 home runs.

4. 1933

   Goudey issues its Big League Chewing Gum baseball cards, with four Ruth cards.

5. Jul 6, 1933

   Ruth hits the first home run in All-Star Game history at Comiskey Park.

6. 1933

   In the season's final game Ruth pitches a complete-game win over the Red Sox, his last appearance as a pitcher.

7. 1933

   Sport Kings cards 1-24, including Ruth at #2, reach stores late in the year.

8. 1934

   The later Sport Kings cards appear; Westrope's back cites a January 1934 event.

9. Jul 13, 1934

   Ruth hits his 700th career home run.

10. Feb 26, 1935

    The Yankees trade Ruth to the Boston Braves.

11. 1936

    Ruth is elected to the Hall of Fame's first class with 215 of 226 votes.

12. Aug 16, 1948

    Ruth dies at 53.

13. May 10, 2021

    A PSA 8 sells for $210,000, the top price in PSA's sales record for the card.

14. Jun 22, 2025

    A PSA 7 is the top lot of a monthly auction at $48,000.

The world in 1933

• Jan 30, 1933

  The Lone Ranger debuts on radio.

• Mar 2, 1933

  King Kong premieres at Radio City Music Hall.

• Mar 5, 1933

  President Roosevelt declares a bank holiday, closing every bank in the country.

• Mar 12, 1933

  Roosevelt gives his first Fireside Chat.

• Jun 6, 1933

  The first drive-in movie theater opens in Pennsauken Township, New Jersey.

• Oct 7, 1933

  The New York Giants beat Washington to win the World Series, 4 games to 1.

• Dec 5, 1933

  Prohibition ends with ratification of the 21st Amendment.

• Dec 17, 1933

  The Chicago Bears beat the New York Giants 23-21 in the first NFL Championship Game.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1933 Sport Kings Babe Ruth #2 is number 38 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (28 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Sport Kings has only three baseball players in 48 cards: Cobb, Ruth and Hubbell.
• Hubbell, card #42, struck out Ruth and four other future Hall of Famers in a row in the 1934 All-Star Game.
• Ruth hit the first home run in All-Star Game history in 1933, the year the set appeared.
• The set's last card honors Leonhard Seppala, the dog-sled driver who helped carry diphtheria medicine across Alaska.
• Babe Didrikson's card spells her name 'Didrickson.'
• One PSA 7 sold for $96,000 in May 2021 and for $49,200 just over two months later.