Odds and Ends for May 21

Babe Ruth jersey sells for $4 million

NEW YORK (AP) — A baseball jersey worn by Babe Ruth has sold for more than $4.4 million, a record for any item of sports memorabilia, according to the buyer and seller. SCP Auctions says the circa 1920 New York Yankees uniform top is the earliest known jersey worn by The Bambino and it fetched $4,415,658 at the company’s April auction, which ended Sunday. SCP Auctions says that price broke the previous record of $4,338,500 set in 2010 for James Naismith’s founding rules of basketball.

Lelands.com says it submitted the winning bid for Ruth’s jersey, which had been displayed for years at The Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum in Baltimore.

Suzan French, a spokeswoman for Lelands.com, says the company plans to sell the jersey privately rather than re-auction it.

Suspect allegedly swallows diamond

WINDSOR, Ontario (AP) — Police in Canada say they are waiting for a man accused of stealing a $20,000 diamond and swallowing it to produce the evidence. It has been nearly a week since Richard Mackenzie Matthews, 52, is alleged to have switched a diamond at Precision Jewellers in Ontario and swallowed the real one.

Matthews is being held at police headquarters while investigators wait for the 1.7-carat stone to pass through his system. Sgt. Brett Corey said Thursday that Matthews has gone to the washroom numerous times, but the diamond hasn’t passed.

Corey says a recent X-ray showed a pair of fake diamonds, or cubic zirconiums, stuck in the man’s intestines but because a diamond is translucent, it isn’t visible. He says the suspect is eager to get the ordeal over with and is co-operating.

In the early stages, Corey says Matthews was being given laxative type foods, but is now being fed whatever he wants, in an effort to get things moving.

Matthews is charged with theft and breach of court conditions, and is also wanted on warrants in Toronto.