A bat used by Willie Mays to hit his last home run has surfaced. After half a century it will auction after a teammate held on to it to honour Mays’ wish that it not be sold during his lifetime.
The bat was wielded by Mays in his final season as a New York Mets player in 1973.
It wasn’t his own.
Growing tired, the legendary player turned to a teammate, Jim Beauchamp, and asked to borrow his lighter bat.
Mays went up to bat and smashed a Cincinnati Reds pitch over the wall at Shea Stadium in what was to be his final home run. His 660th.
The bat later broke in Mays’ hands, and was headed for the dustbin.
But Beauchamp was tipped off by teammate Ed Kranepool, who said: “”Hey Jim, that’s your bat, you better grab it. That might be Willie’s last homer.”
Beauchamp secured Mays’ signature on the bat and kept it.
Mays later signed a letter of authenticity for his former fellow Met. He also asked Beauchamp to refrain from selling the memento while Mays was alive.
Beauchamp passed away in 2007, leaving the bat to his family, who honoured that wish. Now, it will be sold online by SCP Auctions of California.
Mays died in June this year.
He was widely mourned as a hero of the sport. To his incredible playing stats (third all-time home run-hitter at his retirement, second most games played, and National League record for most runs scored) can be added his role as a black pioneer who began his career in segregated “Negro leagues”.
Many observers have called Mays the best baseball player of all time.
The bat has been authenticated, and photomatched to the game in which Mays hit that 660th home run.
“We’re always apprehensive at first,” SCP Auctions founder David Kohler told cllct. “But once I got it in-hand and started looking at photos, I started to think it looked authentic.”
Willie Mays as a San Francisco Giant in 1961. He finished his extraordinary three-decade Major League career at the Mets.
Mays items are relatively rare at auction as the player held on to a large personal collection of mementoes from his career.
In 2012, a bat used in an infamous game between the LA Dodgers and San Francisco Giants sold for $55,000. Mays had stepped in to act as a peacemaker during an ugly brawl. Another of his bats sold for $62,730.
SCP believe this bat, which will be sold in an auction closing on November 23, will go well beyond that price and expect to realise between $250,000 and $350,000 for the item.
The top end of the sports memorabilia market is booming, and baseball is among the best performing sports.
Earlier this year Babe Ruth’s “called shot” jersey set a record for all sports memorabilia when it was auctioned for $24 million.
Cards are also booming. Sotheby’s stepped into the market this year, partnering with Fanatics to hold a first sale of “Holy Grail” cards that starred an $800,000 Roberto Clemente from 1955. The two most valuable cards (Honus Wagner 1909 – 1911, and Babe Ruth 1914) have both sold in the 2020s for over $6 million.
The attractive story attached to this historic bat will only add to its value in November’s sale.
