Lou Gehrig 1927-28 Game-Worn Yankees Jersey

Two seasons, one shirt

The New York Yankees took their nickname in 1913, when they moved from Hilltop Park to the Polo Grounds. For most of the century that followed, their road grays said 'New York' across the chest. In only four seasons did the club put 'Yankees' there instead, and this heavy gray flannel jersey carries that rare word in three-inch block letters.

The back narrows the date further. The Yankees first wore numbers in 1929, and this shirt has no numeral and no sign that one was ever sewn on and removed. That places it in the first half of the 'Yankees' span, the 1927 or 1928 season. Either way it is a World Series championship shirt: New York swept both of those Series.

Inside the collar the surname 'Gehrig' is embroidered in thread that has faded from red to the palest pink, next to a Spalding manufacturer's tag. There is minor damage at the rear tail from the removal of the 'fat strap', a feature the catalog called common to Gehrig's uniforms and dating to his own use.

The Iron Horse in his prime

Lou Gehrig was born in New York on June 19, 1903, the son of German immigrants. By 1927 he was 24, the Yankees' everyday first baseman and in the middle of the consecutive-games streak that began in June 1925 and would reach 2,130 games before he benched himself on May 2, 1939, 'for the good of the team.'

In 1927 he hit .373 with 47 home runs, 52 doubles, 18 triples and 173 runs batted in, and won the American League Most Valuable Player award. Babe Ruth hit his record 60 home runs that year but was ineligible for the award under a no-repeat rule. In 1928 Gehrig hit .374 with 27 home runs and 147 RBI. He led the league in runs batted in both seasons.

He then took his game to another level in October 1928. Against the St. Louis Cardinals he went 6 for 11 with four home runs and nine RBI; his 2.433 OPS in that Series is, through 2025, the highest in World Series history.

Murderers' Row

The 1927 Yankees went 110-44, finished 19 games ahead of the Philadelphia Athletics and swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series from October 5 to 8. Their lineup was nicknamed 'Murderers' Row', the manager was Miller Huggins, and the roster included nine future Hall of Famers. They are widely considered the greatest team in major league history.

Ruth and Gehrig together produced one of the most lopsided seasons any pair of teammates has ever had. Ruth's 12.6 wins above replacement that year rank third all time and Gehrig's 11.9 rank sixth, by one modern measure.

The 1928 club won again, then swept the Cardinals from October 4 to 9, making the Yankees the first team to sweep back-to-back World Series. Ruth hit .625 in that Series, with three home runs in Game 4 alone. In those two seasons there was, as the catalog for this jersey put it, no more threatening sight to home clubs than the gray road uniform walking in from the visitors' dugout.

From the clubhouse to the auction block

Gehrig's game-used material is notoriously scarce. In the catalog's words, his modesty and untimely death thwarted the supply. When this shirt was offered in 2013, the catalog said fewer than ten jerseys from his 17 seasons were known to exist, and that among the members of Yankee Stadium's Monument Park only manager Miller Huggins's autograph was harder to find than Gehrig material.

The jersey was offered at a sports auction held on the evening of February 23, 2013, at the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion, home of the Ukrainian Institute of America, in New York. It led the night at $717,000 including buyer's premium, in a sale that realized more than $5.95 million. An early-to-mid-1930s Gehrig game-worn Yankees cap from the same sale brought $191,200.

That same evening, Mike Eruzione's 1980 'Miracle on Ice' jersey sold for $657,250 and a 1927 Yankees team-signed baseball for $149,375. The sale's director called the Gehrig and Mantle material 'prime material related to the greatest team of baseball's greatest era.'

Gehrig's market has since moved far higher. In October 2025 the jersey he wore in his last appearance in uniform at Yankee Stadium, Game 2 of the 1939 World Series on October 5, 1939, sold at auction for $2.712 million, the most ever paid for a piece of Gehrig memorabilia.

How to read the shirt

Three features date it. 'Yankees' rather than 'New York' on the chest limits it to four seasons. The blank back, with no ghosting or stitch holes from a removed number, limits it to the years before 1929. And the surname-only collar embroidery fits another 1927 'Yankees' road jersey offered at auction in 2012, worn by backup second baseman Ray Morehart in his only Yankees season, which also read simply 'Morehart'.

The authenticator's letter takes a slightly different view. Its examiners had found a trunk of 1920s Yankees jerseys packed at the direction of equipment manager Pete Sheehy, concluded they were all from 1927 because that was the only season every player represented was on the roster, and noted that those collars carried a first initial with the surname. Because this collar reads only 'Gehrig', they called 1928 the more likely year, while stating plainly that the 'circa 1928' dating was no more than a supposition and that the shirt dates to 1927-28 overall.

The grade was A7. Two points came off because an earlier owner had tried to restore the faded navy 'Yankees' lettering, a restoration later reversed to return the original faded text. Half a point each came off for the missing top button and general heavy wear.

Luckiest man

On June 19, 1939, his 36th birthday, doctors at the Mayo Clinic confirmed that Gehrig had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. On July 4 he stood at Yankee Stadium and called himself 'the luckiest man on the face of the earth.' He was elected to the Hall of Fame in a special election on December 7, 1939, and his No. 4 became the first uniform number retired in major league history. He died in the Bronx on June 2, 1941.

He finished with a .340 career average, 493 home runs, 1,995 RBI and six World Series titles. In 1999 fans voting for the All-Century Team gave him 1,207,992 votes, more than any other player, ahead of Ruth's 1,158,044.

This jersey predates the number he made famous. It comes from the two seasons when he was young, healthy and, in the box scores at least, the most productive hitter on the most celebrated team the game has known.

The numbers

1927 season

155 G, .373 BA, 218 H, 52 2B, 18 3B, 47 HR, 173 RBI, 1.240 OPS; AL MVP

1928 season

154 G, .374 BA, 210 H, 47 2B, 13 3B, 27 HR, 147 RBI, 1.115 OPS

1927 World Series

4 G, 13 AB, 4 H, 0 HR, 4 RBI, .308; Yankees sweep Pirates

1928 World Series

4 G, 11 AB, 6 H, 4 HR, 9 RBI, .545; Yankees sweep Cardinals

1927 Yankees

110-44, 19 games ahead of Philadelphia

Career

2,164 G, 2,721 H, 493 HR, 1,995 RBI, .340 BA; 2,130 consecutive games

Timeline

1. Jun 19, 1903

   Henry Louis Gehrig is born in New York.

2. 1913

   The New York club officially adopts the Yankees nickname on its move to the Polo Grounds.

3. Jun 1925

   Gehrig's consecutive-games streak begins.

4. 1927

   Gehrig hits .373 with 47 home runs and 173 RBI and wins the American League MVP; the Yankees go 110-44.

5. Oct 8, 1927

   The Yankees complete a four-game World Series sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

6. Oct 9, 1928

   The Yankees finish a sweep of the Cardinals, the first back-to-back World Series sweeps; Gehrig hits four home runs in the Series.

7. 1929

   The Yankees put numbers on their uniforms for the first time, ending the era of blank-backed jerseys like this one.

8. May 2, 1939

   Gehrig takes himself out of the lineup, ending his streak at 2,130 consecutive games.

9. Jun 19, 1939

   On his 36th birthday, the Mayo Clinic confirms he has ALS.

10. Jul 4, 1939

    Gehrig delivers his 'luckiest man' speech at Yankee Stadium.

11. Dec 7, 1939

    Gehrig is elected to the Hall of Fame in a special election.

12. Jun 2, 1941

    Gehrig dies in the Bronx at 37.

13. 1999

    Fans vote Gehrig the top vote-getter on Major League Baseball's All-Century Team.

14. Feb 23, 2013

    This jersey sells for $717,000 at auction in New York, the top lot of the evening.

15. Oct 2025

    Gehrig's jersey from his final Yankee Stadium appearance in uniform sells for $2.712 million, a record for Gehrig memorabilia.

The world in 1927

• Jan 7, 1927

  The first transatlantic telephone call is made from New York City to London.

• May 20, 1927

  Charles Lindbergh takes off on the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight, New York to Paris, landing the next day.

• May 26, 1927

  The last Model T rolls off Ford's assembly line in Highland Park, Michigan.

• Aug 23, 1927

  Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

• Sep 30, 1927

  Babe Ruth hits his 60th home run of the season, a record, off Washington's Tom Zachary.

• Oct 6, 1927

  The Jazz Singer premieres, heralding the end of the silent-film era.

• Nov 13, 1927

  The Holland Tunnel opens, the first vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River.

• Dec 2, 1927

  Ford unveils the Model A.

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, Lou Gehrig 1927-28 Game-Worn Yankees Jersey is number 79 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 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 (77 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Only four seasons of Yankees road jerseys ever said 'Yankees' across the chest instead of 'New York'.
• Gehrig won the 1927 MVP partly because Babe Ruth, who hit 60 home runs that year, was barred from winning it again.
• Gehrig's 2.433 OPS in the 1928 World Series is, through 2025, the highest in Series history.
• The faded collar embroidery was once red; it now reads 'Gehrig' in the palest pink.
• Someone once tried to touch up the faded chest lettering; the restoration was later undone so the shirt would be original again.
• In 1999 fans gave Gehrig more All-Century Team votes than Babe Ruth, 1,207,992 to 1,158,044.
• His No. 4 was the first uniform number retired in major league history, but this jersey predates numbers entirely.