Like a family heirloom, cherished for its sentimental value and handed down from one generation to the next, baseball's legacy is passed along through the ages, its value growing through the years.
|  | | "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, in a rare photo with his "Black Betsy" bat, remains one of baseball's great players but ineligible for induction to the Hall of Fame. |
The importance placed upon that history never has been lost on Lester Erwin.
Erwin remembers back to his youth when, as a 4-year-old boy, he would spend long, hot summer days with his family at his cousin Katie Jackson's house in South Carolina. There, Katie's husband, Joe, talked baseball. Not tall tales based more on fiction than fact, but firsthand accounts of his days as one of baseball's greatest players.
Later, as "Shoeless" Joe Jackson faced his final days, he bequeathed more than just stories. With no children, his most cherished baseball memorabilia, first passed along to his wife, eventually made their way into Erwin's hands. And now, some 42 years later, Erwin is prepared to pass along a bit of baseball history himself.
But at a price.
Over the years, Erwin has hawked some 30 to 40 items once owned by Jackson, whose legacy as one of baseball's most feared hitter remains overshadowed by his association with the "Black Sox Scandal" of the 1919 World Series. Perhaps that is why, during a 1998 Christie's auction, deep-pocketed collectors paid huge premiums for items ranging from Jackson's driver's license to his correspondence with commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis pleading for reinstatement from a lifetime ban from baseball.
Since 1959, "Black Betsy," believed to be Jackson's most cherished bat, has remained a fixture in Erwin's home. But its remaining days in Erwin's possession could be but a precious few. By week's end, someone else may be its owner, and Erwin quite possibly could be a million dollars richer.
"I wasn't ready to give it up" in 1998, said Erwin, now 54 and a circulation manager for the Greenville (S.C.) News. Though the bat, now warped and crooked, was sometimes left leaning against a wall over the years, Erwin has never forgotten its significance. He said he will feel "sad, I'm sure, but I made the decision to sell and I know what that means."
But do sports' richest collectors? Three days into a 10-day, online auction, no collector has yet ensured the bat's sale -- and perhaps its place in history -- by matching its minimum bid of $500,000, double the highest price ever paid at auction for a game-used bat. Combine the well-documented provenance, or chain of custody, of the bat with the scarcity of Jackson memorabilia and the mystery and intrigue that surrounds his legacy, and the item could bring the highest price paid for a sports collectible.
Just a week ago, Dave Bushing sold Babe Ruth's autographed, game-used bat for $225,000. The same bat The Bambino used to hit the first of his 46 home runs during the 1924 season. In February 1999, comic book author Todd McFarlane reportedly paid between $2.7 million to $3 million for Mark McGwire's record-setting 70th home run ball.
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If (the bat) didn't have good provenance, I wouldn't buy that thing in a flea market for $12. In the collectibles business, what you are often buying is the paper trail. ” |
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— Dave Bushing, co-author of 'Mastronet Reference and Price Guide for Collecting Game Used Bats' |
"If (the bat) didn't have good provenance, I wouldn't buy that thing in a flea market for $12," Bushing said of Jackson's bat. "In the collectibles business, what you are often buying is the paper trail."
Bushing said he is confident of the bat's origin. Working with PSA/DNA Authentication Services, Bushing helped to certify the bat at The National Sports Collectors Convention in June.
The bat's history is held together by one particular story, published on Aug. 1, 1932, in the Greenville News-Piedmont. In the article, Jackson told the newspaper's sports editor, Jimmy Thompson, that his "Black Betsy," made of hickory, was a gift from a local street car driver during his early playing days, circa 1908. Although experts note the bat has a post-1919 Spalding stamp, Jackson accounted for the confusion, saying he had "sent it to the Spalding baseball company and they finished it for me and stamped their label on it," Thompson wrote.
"I'm sure that this was his favorite bat," said Joe Thompson, the sports editor's son, who claims he actually played with the bat himself. After his playing days, Jackson often allowed children in Greenville to play with the brown bat. Its deep, black indentations came from the children, who often hit rocks with it.
Admittedly, the bat's history is not as clear as its advertisement on eBay seems to claim. Certainly, it is not "the only bat he kept and used throughout his remarkable 13-year (major league) career."
Though the 1932 article mentions that Jackson "made all his hitting records" with the bat, evidence suggests that he didn't use it frequently. When Jackson played with the Cleveland Naps/Indians between 1910-1915, he signed a deal to use Louisville Slugger bats. Playing among a superstitious lot at the time, he gave the bats names like "Black Betsy," "Blond Betsy," "Dixie," "Caroliny," "Ol' Genril" and "Big Jim."
|  | | This week, Real Legends is auctioning off a Johnny Mostil game-used bat signed by Joe Jackson, left, as well as Jackson's "Black Betsy." |
Over the past 10 years, Mike Nola has established himself as a leading expert on Jackson, spending more than $50,000 researching Jackson's life. Of the some 500 photos he has seen of Jackson, Nola said he rarely has seen Jackson playing with a bat with the dimensions of the "Black Betsy," 34 inches long and a hefty 40 ounces. Jackson's Louisville Slugger bats were 35½ inches long and weighed approximately 39 ounces. The exceptions are pictures used in the auction: one of Jackson in action, another of him sitting with the bat late in his barnstorming days.
"Since 1912, he pretty much exclusively used Louisville Slugger bats," Nola said, "but I believe that he used this bat sparingly throughout his career on special occasions and throughout the majority of his outlaw days."
Joe Anders, 80, who was 15 when he befriended Jackson, said he remembers the bat. But he added, "Since it was his favorite bat, I assumed he used it throughout his career. But I didn't ever ask him for specifics."
"But you always see him with a thick bottle bat," said Bushing, co-author of "Mastronet Reference and Price Guide for Collecting Game Used Bats." "It has a handle and a bludgeon, and it looks like a potato masher."
Even Erwin said he is unsure of the bat's complete history.
"I believe he had it with him (throughout his career)," Erwin said. "It was his favorite bat and he may or may not have used it. I don't know if we'll ever know."
Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at darren.rovell@espn.com.
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