Hall of Famer and baseball’s Ironman Cal Ripken, Jr., in the season after he broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak, put up a solid Triple Crown slash line of .278/26/102 as the Orioles made a surprising appearance in the 1996 American League Championship Series. Offered here is a Louisville Slugger P72 model bat used by Ripken during the 1996 season and in August against the Oakland A’s. Ripken used this bat in one those games that took place on August 16th in Oakland. Ripken faced Carlos Reyes in the top of the 9th inning of the first game of a double-header and lined out to second base. This bat displays outstanding game use with a slight crack on the handle from that 9th-inning at-bat. There are ball marks, stitch impressions, blue ink transfers and slight checking or grain swelling from repeated contact present on the barrel. Ripken has added a piece of athletic tape to the barrel that reads “8-16-96 Vs Oak Reyes” in blue pen. This bat comes directly from the personal collection of Cal Ripken, Jr. with a signed LOA from Cal that will accompany this item. This bat also comes with a LOA from PSA/DNA (1B19790) for the game use and has been given the highest possible grade of GU 10.

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