This offered Louisville Slugger P72 model bat comes directly from the personal collection of Cal Ripken, Jr. Although the bat’s labeling period is from 1999 it was actually used by Cal during the 2001 season. There are ball marks and stitch marks present on the barrel, along with a moderate coating of pine tar on the handle. Ripken has added athletic tape that wraps around the end of the barrel and wrote in. The handle has a crack which is the only thing keeping this bat from being a perfect GU10. There is athletic tape on the barrel with "Broken Sun Sept. 2 (2001) vs Seattle Sasaki" noted in black marker. On that date, Cal went 1 for 4 recording the 3,170th hit of his career before he cracked this bat against Seattle’s closer. Given the amount of use on this bat it was easily used for multiple at bats and possible multiple games so there is no doubt it was minimally used by Cal to record hit #3170 earlier that game.
Although there were many bats in Cal’s collection, a much smaller number contained details about when bats were used pinpointing them to specific games or events like this one. This bat comes directly from the personal collection of Cal Ripken, Jr., and a signed LOA from Cal will accompany this bat. Additionally, there is an LOA from PSA/DNA (1B24151) for the game use and has been given a very high grade of GU 9.5.
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