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Jackie Robinson 1949 All-Star bat sells for $1.08 million

By Eric Stephen
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Jackie Robinson With The Brooklyn Dodgers Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images

The Dodgers are hosting the MLB All-Star Game this July, and if one of the team’s hitters is lucky maybe his bat will one day be sold for seven figures over seven decades later.

The bar was set on Saturday, when a Jackie Robinson All-Star model bat from 1949 was sold for $1.08 million.

Brooklyn was the host for the 1949 midsummer classic, which was notable for being the first MLB All-Star Game to have Black players selected for the game. From Goldin Auctions, the bat is “a Hillerich & Bradsby S100 model bat that was specifically made for and used by Jackie Robinson during the 1949 All-Star Game played at Jackie’s home park at Brooklyn’s Ebbetts Field.”

Jackie Robinson’s 1949 All-Star Game bat sold for $1.08 million.
Jackie Robinson’s 1949 All-Star Game bat sold for $1.08 million.
From Goldin Auctions

Robinson started at second base, batted second, hit a double, walked, and scored three times for the National League.

“The direct provenance from Rachel Robinson and the added historical significance of the 1949 All-Star Game being played in Brooklyn place this example at the pinnacle of Jackie game bats,” said David Hunt, CEO of Hunt Auctions, who bought the bat on behalf of a private client.

This was the first of six MLB All-Star Games for Robinson, who started five times. He also won National League MVP that season, winning a batting title while hitting .342/.432/.528. Robinson led the NL with 37 stolen bases, and set career highs with 203 hits and 124 RBI.

Links

  • An older, wiser Clayton Kershaw has a new perspective this season, after missing last year’s playoffs. Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic wrote about the Dodgers icon: “Kershaw is here now. He’s present and even lighter. Roberts once described managing Kershaw’s starts as “nerve-wracking,” as he tries to optimize everything to do right by his future Hall of Famer. That tension has morphed into admiration, and Kershaw has changed along with it.”
  • Old friend Willie Calhoun was optioned to Triple-A by the Rangers on Sunday, and in an interview with Levin Weaver at The Athletic seemed to hasten he eventual exit from the organization. Among Calhoun’s quotes to Weaver: “(I’m) gonna go to Triple A and put myself in a position to get traded,” and about the hitting coaches, “I don’t agree with some of the hitting philosophies from the new guys.”
  • The Mets’ five-pitcher, 159-pitch no-hitter on Friday night was celebrated in all its weirdness by David Roth at Defector.

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