APPRAISER: This is a Babe D. Zaharias signed tennis ball.

How did you get this?

GUEST: This is something my dad gave me in 1949 when he was 16 years old.

He went to, uh, Madison Square Garden and Babe was there with some sports thing and she was chipping these balls out into the audience with her golf clubs.

My dad just reached his hand up and he grabbed a ball.

That's how I ended up with... APPRAISER: So was it signed?

GUEST: She had them signed and then was just sending em out into the audience.

APPRAISER: So what have you learned about Babe?

GUEST: Um, well, I know that she got the name Babe from Babe Ruth, because her real name was Mildred.

APPRAISER: That's, that's right.

GUEST: So I'd go with Babe, too.

GUEST: In 1932, she went to the Olympics.

She won two gold medals, one for javelin, one for hurdles, and then she got a silver medal as well.

And she did, she did golf, she did tennis.

She was a seamstress that sewed her own tennis uniform sometimes.

APPRAISER: Babe Didrikson Zaharias is the greatest all-around female athlete in history.

She got her start playing AAU basketball.

She was a ringer for her office team.

She played baseball.

And then, of course, she ran track and field... GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: ...went to the Olympics, won the two gold medals, won a silver medal and set four world records in 1932.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: And then just for the heck of it, a few years later in '35, when she was 24, she decided she was gonna take up golf.

GUEST: Yeah, amazing.

APPRAISER: And what happens?

She becomes the leading female golfer in the world.

APPRAISER: She wins ten major women's tournaments.

She's one of the founders of the LPGA.

You said she was a seamstress.

GUEST: She, yeah.

APPRAISER: She also played the harmonica, she was recorded... GUEST: I heard, yes, yes, that she was a harmonica player.

APPRAISER: And she spun some tall tales, too.

She's the one who put out the Babe story.

Really what happened is her mom called her Bebe, and that turned into Babe.

I know it's priceless to you, but have you ever had this valued?

GUEST: My dad did, uh, I think, about 20 years ago maybe, um, he had it valued at somewhere between $500 and $750 bucks, something like that.

APPRAISER: Well, have you seen the growth in women's sports over the last several years?

GUEST: Oh yeah, absolutely.

APPRAISER: The memorabilia market has also gone up.

I would place an auction estimate of $1,500 to $2,500 on the ball.

GUEST: Oh, cool.

Oh, that is awesome.

My dad will be very happy.

(laughs) That's neat, that is really, really cool.

(laughs)