This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/11/2018
Mark McGwire appeared in 105 games with the Athletics in 1997 before being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals, where he was reunited with former A’s manager Tony LaRussa. Oakland fans were certainly sorry to see him go, as he was in the midst of what appeared to be an historic season. McGwire had already tallied 34 home runs and was on pace to challenge Roger Maris’ long-standing single-season home run record. He eventually added 24 more home runs with the Cardinals, finishing the year with 58 home runs, just three shy of the record. In doing so he became the first Major League player to hit 20 or more home runs with two different teams in the same season and the first to hit the most home runs in a season without qualifying as the home run champion in either league.
Here we present McGwire’s game used Rawlings Adirondack pro model bat from that headline-grabbing season. The 30.7-ounce, 34.5” inch-long “Big Stick” branded ash bat exhibits plenty of game use with rack marks throughout as well as numerous baseball contact marks and ink transfers littered about the barrel. A light coat of pine tar is present on the handle which shows a crack. The knob of the bat is engraved with “MAC 25,” “160” and “97” to reflect McGwire’s uniform number, the order number and season of issue respectively. "33 McGwire" is hand-written in black ink on the knob of the bat.
Includes a LOA from John Taube of PSA/DNA (GU8.5).