The biggest saying in any collectibles’ hobby is “buy the piece, not the story.” That is some of the best advise around and is the reason why this description begins with the hard facts surrounding the piece. This is a 1956-era Willie Mays game used Adirondack 113A model bat. The bat has been authenticated as such by PSA/DNA and awarded a grade of GU 8. With that out of the way, we can now let the original owner of this bat tell the story of how it was obtained, for sometimes the true value of a piece cannot be measured solely by its price or by the grade it has been given:

 “On July 31, 1956 my father took me to the Polo Grounds to see my first major league night game, a twi-nighter against the Cincinnati Redlegs. We zigzagged the pedestrian ramps to the upper deck and I heard the distant crack of the bat, a sound so distinctly “baseball” it forges an emotional link in millions of baseball hearts. If I listen closely to the replay in my mind I can hear the hit with a 7-year-old’s ears. I can still feel the internal electric current the crowd’s roar transmitted to my heart. A white shirted attendant pointed to our seats under an overhang decorated by an ornate façade. According to New York Daily News writer Jim McCulley, “The Giants upset the second-place Redlegs, 5-1, in the opener of a twi-nighter as Joe Margoneri went the distance with a nifty five-hitter.” In the nightcap Cincinnati scored five in the fifth and took a 7-1 lead. The Giants didn’t rally. They split the doubleheader. In truth, not a bad result for a 34-58 team, hardly that of a pennant contender. I didn’t care I rooted for a cellar dwelling team. I didn’t notice the sparse attendance. I loved being there. I loved the Giants’ cream jerseys. I loved seeing Willie play.

“In the days before Walter O’Malley and Horace Stoneham took their National League franchises to the West Coast, New York fans expected to walk on the field after games. In fact event management encouraged patrons to use it as an efficient way to empty the stadium, directing fan toward gate openings in the outfield walls. After the second game on this night I walked on Willie’s turf. Dad and I made our way to the field and stood on the top step of the Giant dugout where an equipment manager purposefully pulled the bats from a storage cabinet and stuffed them into a white canvas bag with a reinforced leather bottom. The man paused as he yanked one particular bat from the rack. He lifted a buckskin Adirondack, the wood veined with darker streaks. He examined it carefully. Grasping it by the barrel he tapped the handle gently against the dugout steps. The cracked bat responded with a twang. He held it up, caught my eye and tossed it my way, an upside-down exclamation point. The genuine ash product bore an inscription on the barrel: Willie Mays.”

This is that very bat eloquently described by its original owner. The Adirondack 113A model bat has the aforementioned crack in the handle and shows good use. There are some ball marks and cleat imprints visible on the barrel and the model number “113A” is stamped into the knob. The handle does not bear any pine tar residue, as Mays was not a regular user of the substance until after the team moved to San Francisco. The bat had taken on a golden-brown patina through the decades, providing a perfect canvas for Adirondack’s trademark white stamping. Being a new to the hobby 1950’s Willie Mays gamer alone makes this bat an outstanding piece – however, its provenance and story of how it was obtained by a young boy attending a Giants game with his father in 1956 elevates it to a truly exceptional level. The bat comes with a LOA from PSA/DNA (1B17129) for the game use and has been graded a solid GU 8, as well as copy of the full story as written by the original owner for provenance.

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