Baseball Bat

Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
​See also : Sport rewards and medals  Lou Gehrig  Babe Ruth

1911 Joe Jackson Model Bat
2014 SOLD for $ 960K by Heritage

Joe Jackson is the son of a poor peasant from South Carolina. The boy appreciates that he is gifted for baseball and begins playing to win some money. He is so strong that he breaks the arm of a fellow by pitching a ball and his playmates will no longer dare to face him. He will be a hitter.

He was nicknamed Shoeless Joe before his debut in the Leagues when someone noticed that he was playing in his socks. He had taken off his shoes just on that day because of a painful blister. Added to the fact that he was illiterate, this idea of a ​​barefoot champion certainly contributed to his immense popularity. He was one of the best two hitters of his time, equal to Ty Cobb.

During the 1908-1909 season, Joe played ten games in Major League with the Philadelphia Athletics and spent the rest of his time in the Minor League. 1911 is his first full MLB season, with the Cleveland Naps. His rookie record of a .408 batting average has never been equaled.

For that unprecedented rookie feat, Joe was using Louisville Slugger bats by J.F. Hillerich and Son. The best players were invited to send their preferred bat back to the factory for serving as a master model for future orders. Such practice comes in the follow of their 1905 agreement with Honus Wagner to endorse a model of the Louisville Slugger, a commercial act unprecedented in sport history.
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The model Hillerich bat of the rookie season of Joe Jackson has a sidewriting by the factory with the name of the player, the reference J13 of this specific model and the return date of June 1911. The Louisville Slugger trade mark is consistent with the 1905-1910 period. It is graded GU 9 by PSA/DNA, with many ball marks witnessing for a long time of service. Both facts make obvious that it was his preferred bat long before his MLB career.

This bat was sold for $ 960K by Heritage on February 22, 2014, lot 80003.

All Jackson bats known from PSA/DNA match the J13 template.

1912 Honus Wagner
2021 SOLD for $ 900K by Heritage

The history of baseball is divided into two periods. The first, which ends in 1920, is the Dead Ball Era. The pitcher is dominant. He has the right to reduce the visibility of the ball before pitching, and the wear of the ball over the course of the game greatly hinders the hitter. The games are played with few points scored.

Under these conditions, the best hitters are sturdy and bulky men, which brings to glory Honus Wagner and then Babe Ruth. This is not enough : the bats must be as easy to handle as possible. They are long and heavy. The Louisville Slugger brand listens to the specific needs of the players and will soon dominate this market.

On February 27, 2021, Heritage sold for $ 900K a long and massive bat, 51.4 ounces over 35 inches, lot 80088. It retains traces of heavy use and was given the highest grade by PSA/DNA, GU 10. It bears the inscription PTS Wagner 1912. It had been made by a local Pittsburgh artisan who has not been identified.

This bat is matched with a period photo, also dated 1912, on which it is carried forward by Honus Wagner seated with dangling legs on a low wall. This photo illustrates a comment by pitcher Christy Mathewson that there is no weakness in Wagner. Photo matching is facilitated by the fact that this local equipment escapes the standardizations of the Louisville Slugger.

A baseball bat of such a weight is a kind of prehistoric club that can also be useful in policing. It is funny that Wagner gave it to a Pittsburgh police officer.

1916-1918 Babe Ruth
2021 SOLD for $ 1.02M by Heritage

Hired in 1914 by the Boston Red Sox, Babe Ruth becomes the best left-handed pitcher in the MLB. He soon tires of this position which is neither active enough nor visible enough. He still hits little for his club and the bats used by him in this period are very rare.

In 1917 the clubs could no longer maintain their teams in full because of the conscription. Ruth takes this opportunity to become a hitter. He is gifted : as early as 1919 he breaks the MLB record for the number of home runs scored in a single season with 29 home runs. The transition in 1920 from Dead Ball to Live Ball further increases his dominance.

In 1915 the pitcher had scored only four home runs. A Spalding bat used by him during that season is the earliest known bat linked to Ruth. It is 35.25 inches long and weighs 37.5 ounces. Graded GU 9 by PSA/DNA, it passed at Heritage on December 10, 2017. Heavier bats will be more effective. Ruth acquires in 1916 a Louisville Slugger weighing 44 ounces.

On December 16, 2020, Christie's associated with Hunt sold for $ 600K a Louisville Slugger from the period 1916-1918, lot 15. It was sold $ 1.02M by Heritage on February 27, 2021, lot 80089.

This piece is 35.75 inches long and weighs 43.6 ounces. It is inscribed RUTH on the barrel and its provenance is impeccable : the former champion himself cracked it during a demonstration in 1944. It has been professionally repaired and is graded GU 9.5 by PSA/DNA.

This experimental period ends in 1918 when Hillerich and Bradsby offer the champion to make his choice from their product line of Louisville Sluggers. Identified as the R2 model, the bat that fits Babe Ruth is standardized between 36 and 39 ounces. Graded A 10 by PSA/DNA, the prototype entrusted to Ruth was sold for $ 540K by Heritage on October 2, 2009.

1920 Babe Ruth R2
2021 SOLD for $ 870K by Heritage

So invited by Hillerich and Bradsby, the players returned to the factory their favorite bat to serve as a model for the next orders.

The first agreement between Babe Ruth and H and B happened in 1918 when the young champion was playing for the Red Sox. His model bat identified by an R2 mark was sold for $ 540K by Heritage on October 2, 2009, lot 82067.

Its characteristics are 36 inches and 39 ounces. It is authenticated by PSA/DNA and by Mears and graded A10*. The asterisk is rewarding the historical character of that piece of equipment.

R2 bats were made for Ruth until 1926. A game used bat of Babe Ruth has some features brought by the player to facilitate its handling such as added scratches or rings. His phenomenal hitting precision results in a grouping of ball impacts on the lumber.A game used R2 bat of Babe Ruth was sold for $ 870K by Heritage on August 21, 2021, lot 80064. It had passed at Goldin on July 12, 2014, lot 72, and at Heritage on December 10, 2017, lot 80002.

It is autographed by Ruth to a friend on the barrel and inscribed 1920 by him. The friend, a former manager of a club in minor league, was arguably the earliest collector of game used bats.

Considering that the R2 was custom designed by Hillerich and Bradsby in 1918, this 40.2 ounces bat comes within Ruth's transition period from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees which is also the transition period from Dead Ball to Live Ball.

This perfect Game Used bat graded PSA/DNA GU 10 and MEARS A10 displays many hits of balls grouped on a very small surface demonstrating the highly skilled gesture of Babe Ruth.

Another R2 is consistent with a July 1920 transaction between Ruth and H and B, a few months after he signed with the Yankees. It was sold for $ 410K by Heritage on August 19, 2017, lot 80039.

1921 Babe Ruth
2020 SOLD for $ 930K by Heritage

With his hitting strength and skill, Babe Ruth is the champion of home run. He is the MLB leader for the home runs every year from 1918 to 1931 except 1922 and 1925. Baseball fans follow with passion the cumulative number of his homers.

In 1920 which was his first season with the New York Yankees, Ruth had already overtaken his record before the improvement of the ball which opened the Live ball era. He ended that season with 54 homers. 1921 is even better, with 59 homers. The bat associated with his 59th home run was sold for $ 720K including premium by Heritage on February 21, 2015.

Ruth's 52nd 1921 homer is therefore not breaking a record. It was scored on September 7 at the Polo Grounds in New York against his former team, the Boston Red Socks. Ruth had used a heavy Hillerich and Bradsby bat.

What follows is typical of the champion's deep but very personal wit, self-confident enough for not being overwhelmed in the details.

He did not inscribe this bat but kept it for a few months as a memory of this home run. In Cincinnati in January 1922, an amateur player is rewarded as the best hitter in his category. A ceremony is organized at the local Keith's Theatre, belonging to a chain of vaudeville theaters. Babe Ruth gives his bat.

It is supported by a typed and signed letter, dated January 10, on a letterhead from the Hotel Ansonia in New York where Ruth frequently resided. The letter is addressed to Keith's local manager, Ned Hastings, without mentioning the young award winner. It attests to its use for the 52nd home run of 1921 with a humorous comment : "It served me well in baseball and I hope it will also serve you as well in vaudeville".

The risk of confusion is lifted by a press clipping from the Cincinnati Enquirer, published the day after the award ceremony during which Hastings and Ruth together presented this specific bat to the young player with speeches and handshakes. Interestingly Ruth is already addressed in the newspaper with his new mocking nickname of Sultan of Swat. The younger champion is the "Little Babe".

The bat accompanied by the two period documents referred above was sold for $ 930K by Heritage on May 8, 2020, lot 57057. It is graded GU 10 by PSA/DNA.

1922-1923 Lou Gehrig
2020 SOLD for $ 1.03M by Heritage

A very early game used bat of Lou Gehrig passed at Heritage on February 23, 2020, lot 5051. The press release of April 8, 2020 reported that it was sold in post sale for $ 1.03M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.

​This bat was made by Hillerich and Bradsby for Gehrig around 1922, preceding their first contract in October 1923 with the 20 year old player. It was extensively used by Gehrig in that transition period when he was a pitcher for Columbia University and then went professional in MLB from June 1923 with the New York Yankees and occasionally with the Hartford Senators. It is graded a perfect GU 10 by PSA/DNA.

This bat was used in 1925 as the master for the 40 oz Gehrig bat which will from then have a burnt facsimile signature on the barrel in place of the block letter name inscribed on the pre-contract specimen. A side written date from the factory on the barrel records this operation. This use as a master reveals that it was in period Gehrig's preferred bat.

1923 Babe Ruth
2004 SOLD for $ 1.26M by Sotheby's

The Black Sox Scandal could have permanently tarnished the reputation of America's favorite sport. This case of faked baseball matches finds its epilogue in 1921 by a public trial and the ban for life of the players at fault.

In the same year Christy Walsh invents two lucrative jobs. He manages a syndicate of ghost writers who prepare texts to be endorsed by baseball personalities and approach the top players including Babe Ruth for becoming their business agent.

We must encourage young people to be reconciled with baseball. Following an initiative of the Los Angeles Evening Herald, Walsh and Ruth decide in 1923 that for three consecutive seasons the bat of the first home run of the champion will be inscribed and signed by him and given to the winner of a baseball contest organized for Californian students.

In 1923 Ruth scores his first homer on April 18 during the inauguration of the Yankee Stadium. It was impossible to imagine a more prestigious event. The bat used for this feat is awarded on June 7 by the newspaper to a young player named Victor Orsatti. It was sold on December 13, 2004 by Sotheby's for $ 1.26M, a great price for a sports memorabilia at that time.

In 1924 Ruth records his first homer on April 20 in Washington DC. His bat is awarded as promised to the winner of the Californian contest, Phil Grossman. It passed at Heritage on February 23, 2019.

1928-1929 Babe Ruth's Notched Bat
2021 SOLD for $ 1.05M by Christie's and Hunt

Babe Ruth is the champion of the home run. He takes in 1927 the childish habit to notch the bat handle when he records a homer. This is not intended for starting a new method of counting but instead, as he narrated it in period in a book, to behave "like the old gunmen used to notch their guns when they killed a man". The lineup of the Murderers' Row by the New York Yankees in the same year is not a mere coincidence.

This quirk did not last long. Only five known bats have been notched by the childish Babe, marking a total of 79 home runs.

One of them was sold for $ 1.05M from a lower estimate of $ 500K by Christie's and Hunt on October 7, 2021, lot 93. This game used bat from the period 1928-1929 has eight notches.
This Louisville Slugger 125 model R43 is graded GU 9 by PSA/DNA.

1929 Babe Ruth
2019 SOLD for $ 1M by SCP

In 1920 a baseball player dies after being hit in the head by a ball. The MLB immediately modifies its rules for a better visibility of the balls. This change has a direct impact on the hitting rate and indirectly on the number of home runs. It separates the baseball history into two periods, the Dead Ball era and the Live Ball era.

At the time of this transition, Babe Ruth already has six years of experience in MLB where he is one of the best hitters. With his imposing physique that does not prevent a speedy running, he already holds the record of 29 home runs in a single season. He greatly increases this performance with the new regulation. This is how this run far away from the ball has become for the public the most spectacular action of the game.

In a single season, Babe Ruth achieves 59 home runs in 1921 and 60 in 1927. He is the first to reach 300, 400, 500, 600, 700 cumulated home runs in MLB.

Babe Ruth starts 1929 with a cumulated 470 home runs. At that date, no other player has exceeded 250. The public is passionate about the approach of 500. Ruth is pretentious and likes to announce his success in advance. On August 11, 1929 in Cleveland, he announces and executes the 500th home run of his career. He hit the ball with such a strength that it came out of the Park.

The Louisville Slugger of the Cleveland feat was first kept by Ruth, then presented in the 1940s to one of his golfing, bowling  and dining fellows. Hidden by this family to avoid attracting burglars, this glorious bat remained unknown in the hobby. It has just surfaced and it was sold for $ 1M by SCP Auctions on December 14, 2019, lot 2. It is graded GU10 by PSA/DNA.

1985 Pete Rose
​2021 SOLD for $ 860K by Heritage

Ty Cobb ended in 1928 his 23 year MLB career with prestigious records including 4,191 hits. This figure was only tied in September 1985 by Pete Rose playing for the Cincinnati Reds. Rose retired as a player after the 1985-86 season with a record 4,256 which has not been overcome.

The Mizuno bat used by Rose for the 4,191 is inscribed by the player with a reference to this tying achievement. Interestingly, while targeting the record, the bat model had been referred PR4192 by the manufacturer.

This bat is graded GU 10 by PSA/DNA. The letter of authentication adds a comment that it had possibly been corked. It is 34 inches in length and weighs 31.7 ounces. Corking is not authorized by the MLB rules. ​

The Cobb figure has been reduced to 4,189 in 2019. The Rose 4,190 had been scored in the same game as the 4,191, and the bat inscribed with the 4,191 may now been considered as the record setting equipment.

The Rose bat was sold for $ 860K from a lower estimate of $ 100K by Heritage on August 21, 2021, lot 80069.