Winning the World Series is the crowing achievement in the career of any big league ballplayer. Getting to the Fall Classic is one thing, but winning it is the ultimate thrill of victory. Since the inception of the World Series in 1903, 48 different National League ball clubs have earned the distinction of being called World Series Champions. Following a lengthy baseball tradition, members of the World Series championship squads – along with affiliated team executives and dignitaries – were each presented with commemorative Hillerich & Bradsby Co. (H&B) Louisville Slugger "black bats" to commemorate their outstanding achievement.
This lot features 21 different black bats chronicling 21 different seasons’ worth of N.L. winning World Series championship teams. All of these bats were on display at the recently closed San Diego Hall of Champions.
Several of the H&B Louisville Slugger-branded bats feature the team’s name – for instance, “FLORIDA MARLINS WORLD CHAMPIONS - 1997” – in green block lettering on the barrel. The bats are then stamped with an array of gold facsimile signatures and block letter names all around the barrel revealing the players, coaches, team execs, etc. The facsimile signatures are reported as being those players who were under contract with H&B, while block letter names were team members not under contract. The practice of green stamping the team names was started in 1970. With the exception of small burrowed holes in the knobs and tops of each of the barrels for display purposes, all 21 bats are in near-mint condition with pleasing gloss, bold gold stampings and a generally like-new appearance.
The 21 teams represented in this lot are the 1954 New York Yankees, 1957 Milwaukee Braves, 1959 Los Angeles Dodgers, 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1963 Los Angeles Dodgers, 1964 St. Louis Cardinals, 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers, 1967 St. Louis Cardinals, 1969 New York Mets, 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1975 Cincinnati Reds, 1976 Cincinnati Reds, 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1980 Philadelphia Phillies, 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers, 1982 St. Louis Cardinals, 1986 New York Mets, 1987 St. Louis Cardinals, 1990 Cincinnati Reds, 1995 Atlanta Braves and the 1997 Florida Marlins.
Includes Letter of Provenance from the San Diego Hall of Champions.