Ralph Kiner belted more home runs than anyone else in baseball during his
10-year career, but his achievements in the batter’s box are often
overshadowed by his decades in the broadcast booth, where he became one
of the game’s most recognizable personalities.
Cut short by a back injury, Kiner’s career on the field was among the
most remarkable in baseball history, featuring a concentrated display of
power exhibited by few other sluggers. Kiner ranked among the games'
signature stars in the era immediately after World War II, in the same
conversation with Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Stan Musial. From 1946
to 1955, playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Chicago Cubs and the
Cleveland Indians, he totaled 369 home runs, twice hitting more than 50
in a season, and drove in 1,015 runs, an average of more than 100 a
year. During his first seven seasons, all with Pittsburgh, Kiner led the
National League in home runs every year, still a record streak for
either league. From 1947 to 1951, he had remarkable home run totals of
51, 40, 54, 47 and 42, becoming only the second player in history — Babe
Ruth was the first — to hit at least 40 home runs in five consecutive
seasons.
This 1946-48 Ralph Kiner Pirates era game-used Hillerich & Bradsby pro model G69L bat measures 35 inches and weighs 33.5 ounces. It remains un-cracked and exhibits evidence of light use with a small mounting hole in the knob. A few ball marks are visible on the left barrel. The model number ("G69L") is stamped into the knob. Includes LOA from John Taube of PSA/DNA with a GU 8 grade. Also comes with a letter from the son of a longtime St. Louis dentist who worked on many Cardinals players and received this bat as a gift.