Early ruth bat on eBay

[yanks12025]

Collector over on net54 brought this up so figured I'd share it over here.

this seller listed 3 old bats the other day, one being a ruth block last name bat. Barely talked or even showed photos of it. But Looks like it may be a 1916 ruth gamer. Looks like the seller had sold the lot for $999 and either cancelled the sale after being informed or maybe it was cancelled to start with. But the bat will now be going to auction next week at the national. What a deal that would have been for $999!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Set-of-3-Antique-Baseball-Bats-/231020413831?ViewItem=&item=231020413831&nma=true& si=DAu5p%252FAjsfUkCRG0rU%252F0ez8Xr2g%253D&orig_c vip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

[jbean023]

Where And When Is The Auction At National?

[KGoldin]

Where did you hear this would be at auction?
I am aware of the bat and that is NOT my understanding from the person who has it in their possession

[yanks12025]

I heard it from the seller on ebay.

"It's going up for sale at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago next week after it's restored."

[yanks12025]

Maybe by sale they meant just for sale not auction. My fault, misunderstood stood what they meant.

[Krsoneus]

I don't know anything about this bat..
And you have to consign well ahead of time to get your stuff in the catalogs/auctions...

But to answer the question asked of where/when the auctions are held at National, I know of two auction houses that are having live auctions held in the same city during the national convention :

Heritage has their live Platinum Nigh auction at national, some amazing items in that catalog.
http://sports.ha.com/common/auction/catalog.php?SaleNo=7080&ic=Items-OpenAuctions-Open-BrowseAuctionInfo-071713

And i believe Legendary's summer auction is a live event held during national in the same city as well :
They got a photomatched Mickey Mantle gamer.
http://www.legendaryauctions.com/


You can bid online for both, I'm not going to national but if I was I'd definately check both of them out...

There might be other live auctions held there that I'm not aware of.

[Enyouartist]

Wow, I can only dream of finding something like this! The original auction said it's sold, but I guess it was rescinded. I would imagine the original buyer having a moment of glory until the dreaded cancellation. Lol What a find! How much do you anticipate this brings in an auction?

[VintageGamerNoob]

I've been following it on Net54. Absolutely nuts and possibly one of the biggest finds of the decade as far as bats go. I'd love to hear Taube authenticate it step by step, because it just seems so tough. Dash-dot-dash above and below in the centerbrand, but not "JF Hillerich & Son", so somewhere around 1916-1918? I keep thinking, what keeps someone from just buying the blank bat and stamping "RUTH" on it, but it sounds like his model was substantially more club-like than most of his era, and this might've been made specifically for him. Wonder if they have records going back that far.

[BoneRubbedBat]

Problem with this bat is that you can't tie it directly to Babe Ruth. I have had close to a thousand bats from the early 1900's through my collection, many of which are stamped with names that do not show up on any major or minor league records. A local team could order bats with names on them during that period. There were certainly a few other "Ruths" playing baseball somewhere in the 1910's. It would be like having a bat from that period stamped Johnson. It could be Walter Johnson, or one of the other hundreds of Johnsons of the time. Neat bat, but too many ifs.

[Mark17]

Problem with this bat is that you can't tie it directly to Babe Ruth. I have had close to a thousand bats from the early 1900's through my collection, many of which are stamped with names that do not show up on any major or minor league records. A local team could order bats with names on them during that period. There were certainly a few other "Ruths" playing baseball somewhere in the 1910's. It would be like having a bat from that period stamped Johnson. It could be Walter Johnson, or one of the other hundreds of Johnsons of the time. Neat bat, but too many ifs.

If the bat was of generic shape and style you might have a valid point. But if the bat is Babe Ruth's distinctive style, with large knob, known as a "Ruth" knob probably because he was among the first to order bats that way, and other characteristics, then I think it's a pretty good bet that the owner was at one time the Babe.

Your analogy comparing the name Ruth to Johnson isn't valid. Looking at my Baseball Encyclopedia (1969 edition, I don't need to know much about anything more recent) there are 52 Johnsons and exactly one Ruth. I'm sure if you look at your local phonebook you'll see the same thing. Ruth is NOT a common last name (and few people with first name of Ruth would be swinging such a heavy piece of lumber...) :)