Ralph Kiner belted more home runs than anyone else in baseball over 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, and the third (after Ruth and Jimmie Foxx) to hit 100 over two consecutive seasons. Kiner was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975.
The offered H&B "G69L" signature model bat was brandished by the slugger during his 1955 season as a Cleveland Indian. This 35", 35.2-oz. uncracked white ash weapon boasts excellent use, with ball marks and ball stitch impressions throughout. The bat retains excellent display quality overall.
LOA from John Taube of PSA/DNA (GU8.5)