This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/8/2013
From MLB's greatest lead-off hitter and base runner comes Rickey Henderson's game-used official Mizuno bat bag from his 1990 MVP campaign and the historic next year when he passed Lou Brock to become the all-time leader in stolen bases. His 1,406 career steals ended up being roughly 50 percent higher than the man he supplanted. In his MVP season in 1990, you might just say it was a case of Rickey being Rickey: a career-high .325 batting average, 119 runs scored, 28 home runs and 65 stolen bases, essentially the prototypical numbers from a man who transformed baseball's landscape in both the real-world and fantasy varieties.
This Oakland A's Mizuno bat bat shows genuine game use from those two historic seasons. With white Mizuno screen printing on one side and "Oakland" on the other, the Oakland green leather bat reveals some scuffing on corner areas of the bag; both the shoulder and handle straps are intact and problem-free as is the rest of the bag, jostled only by some separation of the stitching around the circular zipper at the top of the bag. A Letter of Authenticity and appropriate hologram attached to the bag is supplied from Henderson's Man of Steal Sports.
The bag (hologram #A273070) comes with a COA from Man of Steal Sports, Henderson's memorabilia company run by his longtime personal memorabilia manager, Mike Weiss. It is part of Bill Albert's Rickey Henderson collection. Albert worked as a staff photographer for the San Jose Giants minor league baseball club (Giants single A affiliate) and did freelance photography for the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's developing relationships with many Bay Area professional athletes. Albert acquired most, if not all, of his Rickey items through Mike Weiss and Man of Steal Sports.