Mini Autographed Bat...Help Needed!

[PudgePollyMillerFan]

Ok...here is the story....20 years ago I use to mow the lawn for an elderly gentleman (in his 80's)....he was great with woodworking and prior to him passing on he told me he had a gift for me because he and his wife knew I loved baseball. He then handed me a hand made/carved 8-9 inch baseball bat that had three signatures on it and also it had some info on it from the date/place it was signed. He told me he hand made 100 of these bats for some baseball players who came to town that year and he kept one for himself. The bat is inscribed "Corunna....Feb 1/34" (Corunna, Michigan is where he was from and it is from February 1st, 1934). I can read 2 of the 3 signatures (they are all very legible and dark ink type auto's)....the players names are......C. Gehringer.....Gene Desautels...and the third person's signature looks like either....Leo Rockwell or Ted Rockwell or Leo Rookwell or Ted Rookwell....I have looked and looked for the last person's info on baseball info etc but can't find that person listed at all (if I am reading the name right that is....poor penmanship from them).....what would something like this be worth? Does the last name ring a bell with anyone by chance?...Thanks in advance for the info.....C.J.

[Vintagedeputy]

If the sigs are genuine, Gehringer would be the key one. The value I believe would be less if it signed on a mini bat than another medium because mini bats are not as easy to display as say, a photo or cut auto.

Gehringer played for Detroit from 1924-42, and Desautels played for Detroit from 1930-33 so that puts them on the same team and (theoretically) in the same place to obtain autographs from during those years '30-33.

Assuming that the third player was a teammate and not the opposition, you'd probably want to check the sig against players like Billy Rogell, Bob Fothergill, Earl Whitehill, Vic Sorrell, Guy Cantrell, etc who have last names that end in similair sounding letters than the "Rockwell" name you have.

just my 2 cents.......

Jim

[sicollector1954@insightbb.com]

Send me an upclose scan of the sig and maybe I can figure it out. Thanks.

[PudgePollyMillerFan]

I will take some pics of it monday and send ya some....thanks for your assistance.

[MSpecht]

Hi C.J. --

It would be great if you could post the pics on this forum.

Mike Jackitout7@aol.com (Jackitout7@aol.com)

[PudgePollyMillerFan]

Sorry for the delay....here are the pics...hopefully someone can tell me who the auto's are of.....Thanks!

[PudgePollyMillerFan]

Here is the Gehringer auto....

[sicollector1954@insightbb.com]

One of the other signatures on the bat belongs to Gene (Eugene) Abraham Desautels who played for the Tigers between 1930-33. This bat is dated in 2/34 so it probably was signed at a function during the off season. One other looks like Ted Rookwell but I am not familiar with him. As for the last shown in the photo--I have no idea. It is quite possible it does not have a baseball connection as well. The value is in the Charlie Gehringer. He is my favorite signature of any player. Good luck with your efforts!

[PudgePollyMillerFan]

Thanks for the help sicollector1954......Hopefully some day I will learn who the last signature is......