Although it seems as if the tools of baseball, such as the bat, have never changed through the decades, this “banana bat” proves otherwise. This unique design with its distinctive curved barrel from which its name “banana bat” was derived, was patented on June 17, 1890 by Emile Kinst. Mr. Kinst’s grand idea behind this design was to “produce a rotary or spinning motion” to the ball, thus hitting it higher as well as making it harder to catch. It has been documented that several major leaguers, including Honus Wagner tried this style bat (a copy of a photograph of him using it is included). Needless to say, the design did not prove popular and it quickly disappeared from ballparks. This example is un-cracked and shows outstanding use. Measuring 32.5 inches and weighting 38.2 ounces, this is a museum-quality example of an obscure piece of baseball history. This bat comes with a LOA from PSA/DNA (1B13930).

Auction Notepad