Beginning with Babe Ruth and continuing through Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and ending with Mickey Mantle, the New York Yankees had the uncanny luck to have had four generations of home run superstars.

     This extraordinary bat dates to the years in which Joe DiMaggio took over from Lou Gehrig as the team’s offensive maestro. During those two seasons of 1939-40, “Jolting’ Joe” won two batting crowns, hit 61 home runs and led the Yankees to a World Championship. It was in the first of those two years that Joe earned his nickname of the “Yankee Clipper” when radio announcer Arch McDonald compared DiMaggio’s speed and range in the outfield to Pan-American’s long-range “Clipper” seaplane.

     Joe’s Hillerich & Bradsby weights 36.25 ounces and is 36 inches in length. These measurements match the bats ordered by DiMaggio between 1935 and 1944. The date of manufacture is narrowed to the 1939-1940 period based on the center brand style which was used from 1939 to 1944 and the absence of a model number on the knob which is consistent with the 1939-1940 period. The bat is un-cracked. Game use by DiMaggio is shown with some chipping on the top, left and back barrel has been repaired and a few ball marks are visible on the left barrel, consistent with the traits of a DiMaggio game used bat. A great bat from the seasons DiMaggio became the “Yankee Clipper”. The bat comes with a full LOA from PSA/DNA (I02499), which graded this bat a GU 7.5 and a full A8 LOA from MEARS (310241).

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