A baseball bat used by Lou Gehrig at the twilight of his legendary profession with the New York Yankees bought for $715,120 over the weekend, the corporate that auctioned it mentioned on Sunday.
The bat — a 34-inch, 36-ounce Bill Dickey mannequin Louisville Slugger — was used by Gehrig in 1938, his last full season as a key cog in the early dynasties of the Yankees franchise, in response to SCP Auctions.
It might have been used by Gehrig in a World Series sweep of the Chicago Cubs that yr and the following spring, mentioned the corporate, which indicated that it had acquired 26 bids for the bat earlier than on-line bidding ended on Saturday.
SCP Auctions, which is predicated in Laguna Niguel, Calif., and specializes in sports activities memorabilia gross sales, wouldn’t determine the customer, aside from to say it was a non-public collector.
Gehrig gave the bat, which was constructed from ash, to Earle Combs, a onetime Yankees teammate and coach who, like Gehrig, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the corporate mentioned.
“It’s one of the best Lou Gehrig bats ever discovered and, obviously, the provenance is impeccable,” David Kohler, the public sale home’s proprietor, president and chief govt, mentioned in an interview on Sunday night time.
With his batting common having fallen beneath .300 and his residence run manufacturing waning, Gehrig disbursed together with his heavier bat towards the tip of the 1938 season, in response to the public sale home.
The 1939 season was Gehrig’s final in baseball; the sturdy however ailing first baseman, who was often called the Iron Horse, removed himself from the lineup that May after taking part in in 2,130 straight video games.
He was discovered the following month to have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the deadly neurological dysfunction that later turned often called Lou Gehrig’s illness. He gave his farewell speech on July 4, 1939, a second dramatized in “The Pride of the Yankees,” a 1942 movie starring Gary Cooper.
“When this bat was found,” Mr. Kohler mentioned, “we were like, Wow, this is a remarkable piece of history for baseball fans, Yankee fans and Lou Gehrig fans.”
The six-figure worth would possibly give some individuals sticker shock, however different bats and baseball artifacts have commanded rather more on the public sale block.
In December 2019, a bat used by Babe Ruth to hit his 500th profession residence run in 1929 sold for more than $1 million, SCP Auctions mentioned at the time. A bat used by Ruth to hit the primary residence run at the previous Yankee Stadium in 1923, bought by the identical firm in conjunction with Sotheby’s, fetched almost $1.three million in 2004.
As a part of the identical on-line sale in which Gehrig’s bat was auctioned, an original home plate from Yankee Stadium that was put in simply earlier than opening day in 1923 bought for $303,277, the public sale home mentioned.
