“I wanted this apartment bad” - Olivia Dunne admits being stunned by brutal rejection from Babe Ruth’s $1.59 million NYC home

Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes' girlfriend Olivia Dunne has been denied a piece of baseball legacy after her bid to buy MLB icon Babe Ruth's one-time apartment was rejected.

On TikTok on Tuesday, the former LSU gymnast revealed that her approximate. $1.6 million offer to buy Ruth's 345 W. 88th St., apartment No. 7B, was rejected by the building board.

"Guys, I'm so upset," Dunne said inner video. "So a few months ago, I decided I was going to make my first real estate purchase, which is so exciting. And I was going to get an apartment in New York City. But the gag was, it was Babe Ruth's apartment.

"Then the week that I'm supposed to get my keys to my brand new apartment, I get a call: The co-op board denied me. So pretty much the people in the building voted to not have me live there, which is fine. Like, honestly, it wasn't financial."

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The MLB Hall of Famer lived in the apartment from 1920 to 1940 with his second wife, Claire Merritt Ruth, and their adopted daughter Julia Ruth Stevens.

Paul Skenes and girlfriend, Olivia Dunne, were excited with the prospect of buying Babe Ruth's apartment

Olivia Dunne also revealed that she had hired an interior designer for the apartment because she didn't want to bring her furniture to the historic apartment. Both Paul Skenes and Dunne were looking forward to acquiring the apartment.

“It got to the point where the realtor was so confident, Paul and I went, I got an interior designer because I didn’t want to bring my college furniture to Babe Ruth’s apartment, that would be like, criminal,” Dunne said.

She even joked that Alabama fans might have blocked her purchase because of her history with LSU.

"It could have been, for all I know, they could have been Alabama fans, and I went to LSU. Like, I have no clue," she said. "Maybe they didn't want a public figure living there."

While Paul Skenes and Olivia Dunne might not be moving to a new apartment after their failed bid, the Pirates hurler could find himself a new team at the trade deadline later this month.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash