Forum Readers:

Below is a posted link to the current Huggins & Scott auction which features what is reportedly a Cal Ripken Jr. 1992 MLB All-Star game used bat. http://www.hugginsandscott.com/cgi-b...pl?itemid=7082
It is widely known that Cal prefered and used LS throughout the bulk of his career but was known to use Rawlings/Adirondack through the mid to late 80's. This issue came up in discussion before when a similar 94 or 95 Rawlings Ripken bat came up for auction. It was reported I believe by Ironmanfan that Ripken to his knowlege never used any Rawlings bats during all-star games.

What makes this a very interesting bat is that there is a lone ball mark in the center barrel on the back of the bat. Other than that, the bat shows absolutely no use that I can see. There is no writing on the bat, no additional ball marks, bat rack marks, seam marks, cleat marks, pine tar etc. The bat has been graded GU-8 by MEARS and I contacted Troy Kinunnen regarding this bat because the LOA says that there are no ball marks present while there is in fact a single ball mark on the bat. Troy told me that this was a data entry error and it would be corrected on the LOA and sent to H&S. The bat as it appears according to Troy with the single ball mark is correct and there was an error on the LOA in regards to the ball mark being on the back bat barrel.

What I am specifically looking for is confirmation as to whether or not Cal used the Rawlings bat in this game or whether someone told what was a Ripken game issued Rawlings bat and was able to add one lone ball mark to reflect Cal's lone hit in this game. Since Ironmanfan weighed in on an earlier thread regarding Cal's use of wrist bands at the 88 or 89 All-star game and said that he has every single All-star game on video I figured it would be a simple process to verify that Cal was or was not using a Rawlings bat in this game. I am very suspicious on this being an authentic game used Ripken bat since I have never seen evidence of Cal used Rawlings bats in any all-star game. While Rawlings did issue 2 all-star game bats to Cal as far as I know throughout much of his career, whether or not he used them in the game is another matter. If it is conclusively proven that Cal did not use a Rawlings bat during the 92 all-star game then this bat is nothing more than game issued with a doctored ball mark which some unsuspecting buyer is going to end up getting taken to the cleaners on. The opening bid is already $1500 with one bid. While it would be a nice bat to own as a game issued Ripken all-star bat which in and of itself is rare, nobody wants to own a doctored Ripken all-star bat especially at these prices.

If anyone especially Ironmanfan can assist with this I would greatly appreciate it. I have attempted to look at pics through Getty, Corbis and other sources and have not been able to locate anything with Cal batting in the 92 all-star game.

Thanks