Description
When you talk about a rare find, this bat would be near the top for me. This little pearl was acquired from the son of a close personal friend of Pete Rose during the 1976 World Series. You can see blue and black ball marks from the American league ball and the National league ball along with ball marks, seems marks and bat rack streaks of red down the barrel. Most of the use is on the right side of the barrel as it has an uncountable amount of seem marks right in the sweet spot. The left side has 5 or 6 ball marks and a few seem marks as well. It also has been cleaned on the handle which is a nice Rose trait to see.
In all my years of collection and using wood bats, I've not seen lathe marks top and bottom before. It's rare to see a contemporary bat to have these marks but seems Louisville Slugger, rushed these to Pete for the series.
The photo of Pete and Thurman Munson pre game, you can see Rose with this exact type bat in his mitts. In the other photo of Pete at bat, he is also using a bat of this type. Neither of these photos match this bat but, I hope to match it at some point. The Bat is 35 inches long and the weight of 34 1/2 is marked on the Knob from the factory. It's a log but feels incredible in your hands. Perfect grain and a Bicentennial bat from the Hit King is a very nice piece of history from the Cincinatti Reds Big red Machine World Series win.
Thanks for having a look and enjoy your day. Be nice to people and animals.
Todd
