Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Black Betsy
There comes a time when baseball collectors come across a special piece of memorabilia. My sister's boyfriend has an autographed Mickey Mantle baseball, I have a 1951 Yankees team autographed baseball, and my co-worker has Black Betsy.
The story behind Black Betsy is my co-workers grandfather used to work at Fenway Park when one day during batting practice, a Red Sox player cracked his bat, and as the generous person he was, gave the bat to a nearby kid. This particular player named his bats Black Betsy.
The kid grew up and passed the bat down through two generations and into the hands of my co-worker.
He brought in the bat to show it off and just seeing it is amazing. At first I thought it was just an old bat, but when I turned it over, I realized why he was showing the bat to me. I actually got to hold the bat and take a couple swings before handing it over.
The bat is old and has numerous cracks and is starting to split at the grain, but the name George Babe Ruth was inscribed into the wood in clear fashion.
The bat is solid ash with a medium handle and barrel and weighs close to 46 ounces while measuring 36 inches in length and finished with a dark complextion.
Black Betsy was owned by one of sports greatest icons, Babe Ruth.
I held Babe Ruth's bat. How many of you can say that?
To prove this story, I will have pictures posted tomorrow.
Recent forum talk: Baseball Memorabilia
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Labels: Babe Ruth, bat, memorabilia
Posted by Steve Kenul at 6:12 PM
posted at 3:47 PM
Dude you're retarded. "Black Betsy" was a Shoeless Joe Jackson bat. To which, his family still has (I think). In any case, they wouldn't have sold it until recently so I'm pretty sure that your family heirloom isn't his.
Maybe there's a different story to the bat that you just misunderstood though. Could still be the Babe's.
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