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View Full Version : Lelands Auction-Barry Bonds 69th Home Run Bat?



gameused
11-11-2006, 04:00 AM
Lelands is auctioning off Barry Bonds 69th HR bat dated 9-29-01. When looking at Barry Bonds photos on getty images from that game I noticed that the getty photos show the handle of his bat being taped in a criss cross pattern and in the Lelands auction pictures, the bat has spiral tape. What do you guys think, is this the correct bat or has getty made a mistake on the photos?

http://www.lelands.com/bid.aspx?lot=754&auctionid=611

Mike Heffner
11-11-2006, 11:05 AM
Hi Gameused,

That is the correct photo. This bat was cracked (pretty bad handle crack) and taped in this fashion to hide the crack and hold it together. The crack can be felt under the tape.

The fact that it is retaped is mentioned in our write-up for the bat.

Mike Heffner

CollectGU
11-11-2006, 11:27 AM
Wouldn't the tape then be bright white without pine tar and wear all over it?

Thnaks,
Dave

gameused
11-11-2006, 02:44 PM
Hi Gameused,

That is the correct photo. This bat was cracked (pretty bad handle crack) and taped in this fashion to hide the crack and hold it together. The crack can be felt under the tape.

The fact that it is retaped is mentioned in our write-up for the bat.

Mike Heffner

Mike,

Thanks for your response. Lets not focus on the taped handle but instead,
turn our attention to the gold Sam Bat center brand logo.

I enlarged and made brighter two of the getty photos from the 69th HR hit. If you look closely at the gold Sam Bat centerbrand, on the left tip of the bat wing you can see that it crosses over into the two rings of gold tape and into the maple stained upper handle area.

On the Lelands auction photos you can see that left wing does not cross over into the gold rings.

The 69th HR bat center brand should look like this Barry Bonds bat pictured below. Bonds company may have mislabled this bat by mistake.


Best Regards, Bobby

Mike Heffner
11-11-2006, 08:37 PM
I see what you mean but can't tell by the photo that we have posted-it does not show where the wing ends. I will check on Monday when I get in the office will try to get a photo of that side of the bat posted on our web site. We will go from there.

Thanks for your info and concern.

Mike Heffner

Mike Heffner
11-13-2006, 02:34 PM
An update on the bat: We reviewed it this morning and the wing on the bat does not cross over the band on the barrel. We will be removing the bat from the auction.

Thank you.

Mike Heffner

hblakewolf
11-13-2006, 03:03 PM
Mike-
Hats off for doing the correct thing and removing it.

I have a question, however......

The bat is signed, dated and has a Bonds hologram, correct? If this particular bat is bad, the one must also question every other Bonds item that he has sold through Bonds 25 with his hologram, correct? How many other Bonds home run jerseys, hats, bats jackets, spikes, etc. also might be signed as being used from a significant game or home run, however, appear differently under close photographic evidence?

Reminds me of my days when I lived in Seattle and Griffey Jr. had several teammates using his C271 black bats during BP. The demand was so great, he simply could not use enough bats to meet the hobby's needs.

It’s only a matter of time until you see 2 Bonds, Griffey or Arod’s bats signed with the exact same home run offered on Ebay-don’t laugh-it’s bound to happen!

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

allstarsplus
11-13-2006, 03:05 PM
Mike - Great move on your part removing it! The gold label clinched that deal! I didn't like the inconsistency of the tape explanation, but Barry signed with a thin silver paint pen and then the HR inscription is with a thicker silver paint pen which is a red flag.

The 2001 bats I have handled have all been un-inscribed bats and i feel more comfortable with those as I have found inconsistencies with other so called "HR bats" that have had problems like this HR #69 bat.

Just out of curiousity, did you hear from any of Barry's people regarding this bat?

allstarsplus
11-13-2006, 03:12 PM
It’s only a matter of time until you see 2 Bonds, Griffey or Arod’s bats signed with the exact same home run offered on Ebay-don’t laugh-it’s bound to happen!

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net (hblakewolf@patmedia.net)

Howard - I had already seen it with his HR #39 bat which was the last HR Barry hit before the All Star break. Barry hit that HR and continued to use it until he cracked it. We bought the bat from Hoskins and it was signed with no inscription with the assurance that it was used for HR #39.

Last year I see a similar bat at auction with inconsistencies to photos with a career HR total inscription that would have been his 39th HR.

There were photo match inconsistencies with that bat too although nothing conclusive, but it is exactly what you predicted---2 bats for the same HR!!!!

Now of course you got all the back & forth between Bonds and Hoskins so who knows on anything.

Andrew

kingjammy24
11-13-2006, 03:50 PM
i once had a former player tell me that when the mlb wanted to collect his jersey immediately after a significant game in order to auction off in an mlb auction, he deliberately had a duplicate made up so that he could personally keep the real one he wore during the game and give mlb the duplicate. clearly the game meant a great deal to him and he felt he should have the jersey rather than mlb. he also mentioned that he knew that several players did this.

fast forward to this specific bonds bat; here you're dealing with a player who's admitted to collecting and keeping his own significant pieces. at the same time, he's shown some extremely questionable character. he was investigated by mlb and the federal government for, of all things, perjury.
he's faced accusations of lying about many things from several people who have made substantial cases. combine all of this and you've really got to wonder about the real value of barry bonds' provenance. long story short, i'm not the least bit surprised that a bat that barry said was used to hit his 69th HR was shown to be the wrong bat. after reading about the hoskins incident, i wouldn't trust barry to fetch my tea much less have faith that he's handing over a significant bat. if you have a significant bonds item, i'd start to wonder if it's realistic that bonds really parted with it.

as for griffey, i concur with howard. as much as i'd like an early 90s griffey bat, all i can picture in my head is griffey, mitchell, and the other cash money brothers, hitting a couple of bp balls with each others bats just to resell them. i recall seeing 2 different arod bats with the same HR inscription. who knows though, maybe he really did hold 2 bats during 1 swing.

personally, i'd believe hoskins over bonds until hoskins displays the sort of character that bonds has publically displayed.

rudy.

indyred
11-13-2006, 03:52 PM
Outstanding work here. I wonder if Bonds collector webb17 will see this, maybe he can offer some insight into Bonds habits. I remember seeing the ESPN show Bonds on Bonds showing him after a game sitting in his locker singning and dating the bat and his jersey from the game just played. Any idea if that show is going to come out in a DVD set? I may have been one of the few, but I though the show was interesting. I know Bonds controlled the show, but it was nice little peek behind the scenes.....I only saw it couple times, maybe they will do a Bonds on Bonds weekend showing all of the show, not even sure how many were made, not that many....

gameused
11-13-2006, 04:01 PM
It’s only a matter of time until you see 2 Bonds, Griffey or Arod’s bats signed with the exact same home run offered on Ebay-don’t laugh-it’s bound to happen!

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

Howard,

This has already happened in 2004.

On the old game used forum website I wrote about a Alex Rodriguez LVS 2002 HR #16 bat that was being auctioned on Mastronet the only problem was that Vintage authentics had previously auctioned off a Alex Rodriguez Rawlings 2002 HR #16 bat.

Heres the link to that thread: http://www.network54.com/Forum/379976/message/1107935248/

Bobby

hblakewolf
11-13-2006, 04:01 PM
[quote=kingjammy24;25739]i once had a former player tell me that when as for griffey, i concur with howard. as much as i'd like an early 90s griffey bat, all i can picture in my head is griffey, mitchell, and the other cash money brothers, hitting a couple of bp balls with each others bats just to resell them. i recall seeing 2 different arod bats with the same HR inscription. who knows though, maybe he really did hold 2 bats during 1 swing.


Rudy-
It seems like only yesterday when I saw Eric Anthony and Felix Fermin coming off the field from BP holding Griffey's black C271's, criss-cross tape and all. I was always curious if both were paid to use Griffey's bats or if they did it to possibly join the CMB posse.

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

Mike Heffner
11-13-2006, 07:34 PM
Guys,

You are all correct, the time is upon us when even the stuff from the players has to be carefully examined. The items from the players are even more dangerous because they give collectors a sometimes false sense of security. I will be sure to look at this stuff with a more watchful eye now.

As for Allstarsplus' question, the answer is no-the Bonds camp has not contacted us.

Mike Heffner

gameused
11-14-2006, 03:11 AM
Mike,

Thanks for looking into the situation and doing the right thing.

Can I ask you if this bat was consigned directly from Barry Bonds company or did a collector purchase and consign to the auction?

If the bat was purchased by a collector can you update the forum as to what Bonds company will do?

Thanks, Bobby

Mike Heffner
11-14-2006, 11:35 AM
The bat was consigned by a collector. I do not know the history beyond that.

Mike Heffner

cjclong
12-07-2006, 11:21 AM
This is one of the great functions this forum serves. Thanks to everyone who showed the bat was not the one it was supposed tobe. Regardless of what people think about Bonds he is , for good or bad, a historic sports figure. I was trying to decide whether to bid on the bat and now the correct decision has been made for me.