The Big Red Machine dynasty of the 1970s are the best remembered of all Cincinnati teams, but 30 years earlier there was another powerful Reds ballclub – the 1939-40 team won back-to-back pennants and a World Championship. The 1939 club boasted the best pitching staff in the majors with Bucky Walters and Paul Derringer both winning more than 25 games each and backed up by Johnny “Double No-Hit” Vander Meer and ace reliever Gene Thompson and handled by Hall of Fame backstop Ernie Lombardi, 1938’s NL MVP.

Sluggers Wally Berger and Vince DiMaggio roamed the outfield and the infield of Werber, Myers, Frey and McCormick was labeled the best in the NL. The team was molded into champions by veteran skipper Bill McKechnie who had led the Pirates to a World Championship in 1925. This extraordinary bat collects 26 members of that first Reds dynasty include Hall of Famers Bill McKechnie and Ernie Lombardi along with that year’s s NL MVP Bucky Walters, plus Billy Werber, Frank McCormick, Lew Riggs, Vince DiMaggio, Lonnie Frey, Nino Bongiovanni, Lee Gamble, Les Scarcella, Wally Berger, Frenchy Bordagaray, Eddie Joost, Willard Hershberger, Ival Goodman, Johnny Niggeling, Whitey Moore, Harry Craft, Gene Thompson, Billy Myers, Paul Derringer, Johnny Vander Meer, and coaches Jimmy Wilson and Hank Gowdy. The Paul Waner professional model bat shows good game use with period cleat impressions and ball marks. The wood has aged to a warm, golden brown and a metal eye-ring has been screwed into the barrel end for mounting. The black fountain pen signatures are strong against the wood surface and makes a very attractive display. The bat comes with a LOA from JSA for the signatures.

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