When the Yankees came into Briggs Stadium in 1962, Tiger batboy Robert Kaminski knew it was something special. Besides an awe-inspiring lineup that featured future Hall of Famers Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra, there was the new Home Run King, Roger Maris. With his new record still fresh in everyone’s mind, all eyes were on the shy outfielder as the new season unfolded.

     At some point during the game, Maris broke one of his bats, and batboy Kaminski made his move. As part of his job, Kaminski was entitled to take home any broken bats he found, so it was a no-brainer when the opportunity arose to obtain the bat of baseball’s new single-season home run champ. Maris’ Hillerich & Bradsby A92 model bat shows excellent use and has a very slight crack on the handle that has been repaired. Several ball marks with stitch impressions can be seen along with blue ink transfers. There is some checking on the left and right barrel from repeated ball contact and a light coat of pine tar is on the handle. The model number “A92” is stamped into the knob and his number “9” is written over it. Additionally, Maris marked the knob with a “1” indicating that it was his primary gamer. A great game used Maris bat, with impeccable provenance from the boy who obtained it back in 1962. This bat comes with a letter of authenticity from PSA/DNA (1B02449) who have graded this bat a GU 9.5 and a letter of provenance from Robert Kaminski.

Auction Notepad