A bat used by sports and civil rights legend Jackie Robinson in the 1949 All-Star Game was sold at an auction for $1.08 million, according to Goldin Auctions.
Robinson broke the color barrier on April 15, 1947, in professional sports in America and became the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) by signing with the then Brooklyn Dodgers. Almost 75 years later, his legacy and impact are still felt years later because of his play on the field and the sacrifices he made off of it.
The bat is one of the two made for Robinson during his first All-Star game appearance. It would be the first of six all-star games he played in.
From Goldin Auctions:
The bat’s model number “S100" is stamped on the knob and the barrel has the special stamping “ALL STAR GAME” and “BROOKLYN 1949" forever identifying this historic bat. This bat comes with an LOA from PSA/DNA (1B02221) for the game use and has been given a very high grade of GU 9, plus a LOA from Rachel, who states in her letter, “The bat has been in the Robinson family archives since the day it was first used by Jackie and I guarantee that is 100% authentic,” making it a marvelous, sentimental piece of history from one of Robinson’s very best and most iconic seasons.
While $1.08 million is a crazy amount of bread to spend on a bat, the item is still not considered the most valuable baseball bat of all time. That honor would go to Babe Ruth, whose bat was sold in December 2004 for a little over $1.2 million. The bat was from the first home run hit at Yankee Stadium on opening day in 1923, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
This past April, people across the sports world celebrated the anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier. ESPN launched Jackie 75, a season-long project meant to honor the legacy of Robinson and the continued work of his wife, Rachel.
It was also announced that the HISTORY Channel in Association with MLB will premiere the “After Jackie,” a two-hour documentary that will tell the overlooked story of the second wave of talented Black baseball players after Robinson retired.