A Couple of Dodgers Game-Used Bats at Goldin Auctions - Jackie and Yasiel

Goldin is currently running their Winter 2014 auction and it includes a couple of game-used bats I thought worth mentioning.  Check them out below.

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Do you recognize this bad boy?

Featured here is a Yasiel Puig game-used bat that was used during the 2013 season.  It is uncracked, and exhibits all of the markings and characteristics you would expect to find. 

It still amazes me how large of an impact Puig has had on the hobby.  His Baseball cards sell for crazy money, and so does his game-used memorabilia.  With over 20 days left to bid, this bat is already priced at over $1,000.00.  Wow!

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Now, this next bat is something that should find its way into a museum.  To Dodger fans its like a holy relic that must be shared with the masses.

Featured below is a, circa 1955-56, game-used bat that was once held by Jackie Robinson.  It has some incredible provenance, and even features Jackie's number scrawled on the bat knob.  This is an extremely rare characteristic for a Robinson bat. At the time of this posting it is already priced at above $53,000.00.

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From the auction description:

On Sunday April 29th, 1956, a proud father took his young son to Ebbets Field to see his very first baseball game. It's a time-honored tradition likely beginning during the infancy of professional baseball, and this American rite of passage has seamlessly transitioned through today. This particular boy, named Walter, was reeling in bliss anticipating seeing his favorite team and defending World Champion Brooklyn Dodgers take on the Pittsburgh Pirates that afternoon.

What was so special, so extraordinary about that day in 1956 was what happened during the first game. During the 7th inning stretch, Walter's father guided him down to the first row of seats behind the Dodgers dugout. There, waiting just for them, stood Walter's hero: Jackie Robinson. Shocked to say the least, the boy shook the hand of the man who integrated the game less than 10 years before and listened intently as Jackie imparted a few words of philosophical advice. With the game ready to resume, Jackie handed Walter a personalized photograph and one of his game used bats. As Walter sat clutching his hero's bat, he watched as Robinson walked up to the plate later that inning and launched a Bob Friend fastball into the stands for a home run. Though his beloved Dodgers dropped both games to the Pirates that afternoon, the bat and memories he received from one of history's greatest men lasted a lifetime.

In the stands that day at Ebbets Field, there were most likely many fathers taking their sons to their first ballgame, but Walter wasn't just any ordinary boy and his father wasn't just any father. Walter is Walter Blount III, son of Walter Blount, Jr., who founded the Nyack, NY chapter of the NAACP in 1928. Like Jackie Robinson, the pursuit of racial equality ran through the Blount's blood, and his dogged pursuance of racial equality manifested itself in his son Walter Blount, Jr. After devoting five years of his life fighting for his country, Walter Jr. challenged the American Legion's racial policy when he was denied admittance to his local Legion post. It was Blount's close family connections with the early civil rights movement that made his son's unforgettable meeting with Jackie Robinson possible.

(auction link)

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