This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/5/2022
The late, great Roberto Clemente collected exactly 3,000 hits before his life was tragically cut short by a plane crash on Dec. 31, 1972, at the tender age of 38. The Puerto Rican outfielder played all 18 seasons of his Hall of Fame career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, helping deliver World Series titles to the Steel City in 1960 and ‘71. Presented here is a high-grade Hillerich & Bradsby U1 professional model game-used bat swung by the perennial All-Star during the 1968 season. It was a down year at the plate for Clemente—at least by his lofty standards—as he batted .291 with 18 homers and 57 RBI in 502 official at-bats (first time batting under .300 since 1959). The fact that he led the league in number of times walked internationally (27) may have something to do with the sub-par stats. He did snag his eight consecutive Gold Glove award, keeping alive a streak that would ultimately end at 12 straight only because his life was sadly taken from him.
The 36¾” ash bat weighs 37 ½ oz. is un-cracked and shows outstanding evidence of game use. There are ball contact marks a-plenty all over the barrel along with black shoe polish cleat marks and green bat rack streaks visible as well. The knob-less handle Clemente was prone to use maintains its smooth finish and has his famous No. 21 penned on that end, right over the U1 model engraving. One of the finer Clemente exemplars you will find, the bat has been graded GU 9 by John Taube of PSA/DNA and includes its corresponding paperwork.