Roy Campanella Game-Used Bat, ca. 1955
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GUEST:
So this bat was given to my father by his mother, who used to take the train down to the Brooklyn Dodgers games.
APPRAISER:
Cool.
GUEST:
And I think in 1957, Jackie Robinson hit a home run with it and walked over and handed it to my grandmother's best friend, who in turn handed it to her.
APPRAISER:
Okay, now you had also brought another bat. Tell me a little bit about the background of that bat.
GUEST:
Yes, similar story, was given to my grandmother. A baseball player named Roy Campanella hit his last home run with it, the bat was cracked, and sadly he never played again because apparently he was in a car accident soon thereafter. And so we were cleaning out her house and we found them, and thankfully she had written down sort of an account of how the bats came to her possession.
APPRAISER:
And she taped the note onto here.
GUEST:
Yes, yes.
APPRAISER:
Which is why I think we have this discoloration. Yeah. Well, let's start here.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
You know that game that you play of telephone where you start at one story and you end up at another?
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
It really gets boiled down to "things are not always what they seem." And that's what we have here. You have two stories concerning two bats, and I think you have a little confusion. And this is one of the reasons why we didn't bring both bats on.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
So we're going to see if we can clear up this story.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
All right? So this is an actual Roy Campanella game-used bat. How do I know that? First of all, it's stamped "Campanella," and it's what we call a 125, which is a pro model bat. The next thing we look at, here, this says C188. Roy Campanella ordered a number of different bats from Hillerich & Bradsby over a number of years. Well, when Hillerich & Bradsby made the bat, they would stamp them, first with his name, Campanella, and then they would stamp them on the knob. Now, Roy Campanella used G80 bats, W64 bats, and he also used C188. Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947. Roy Campanella was waiting in the wings. He'd been playing, like Jackie, in the Negro Leagues. In '48 he was brought up to the Dodgers, and he was a sensation. So this brings us to 1957. You told us in your second story that Campanella hit his last home run in 1957, and you mentioned that he was in a car accident. And you're absolutely right, in early 1958 he was coming home late at night, it was a bad evening, and he slipped on ice, hit a telephone pole and became paralyzed from the waist down. He could never play baseball again. So here's where we're at with your bat, okay?
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
We know it's a 1954-'57 Roy Campanella game-used bat, all good. The insurance value on this bat is $30,000.
GUEST:
Wow. (chuckles)
APPRAISER:
If we could prove he actually hit the last home run of his career, in my estimation it would be at least $100,000.
GUEST:
Wow. (chuckles)
APPRAISER:
So the lesson is...
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
We need to find what the exact story is. If we can get the story and actually prove that he hit his last home run with this bat, you are going to go from a home run to a grand slam.
GUEST:
Wow. Thank you.
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