In the days before Ty Cobb, Napoleon Lajoie was the best hitter in baseball. He won the Triple Crown in 1901 and took five consecutive batting crowns from 1901 through 1905. Lajoie was so popular with the Cleveland fans that from 1903 to 1913 the team was called the “Naps” in his honor.

     This bat dates to the 1896 - 1905 period in which Lajoie was the greatest hitter in the game. The bat has no commercial marking except “LAJOIE” on the barrel in block letters. At this time many manufacturers marked their store model bats with their company name, but professional model bats were often sent to the players without this marking. It wasn’t until around 1905 that the various equipment manufacturers began branding their professional model bats with regularity. Nap Lajoie signed an endorsement deal with Hillerich & Bradsby in 1905 and it is thought that this bat pre-dates this agreement.

     The bat’s length of 33 ½ inches and weight of 40 ounces compares favorably to Lajoie’s H&B L22 model which was referred to as “His Old Model”. The bat shows great game use and is un-cracked. There is checking throughout the surface due to repeated ball contact and a few small areas where the dead wood has chipped off from age. The knob has four chips and areas of missing wood of various sizes. However, this bat displays wonderfully, the wood has darkened to a warm deep brown and the “LAJOIE” stamping is both deep and bold. This is a true piece of early baseball history that comes with a LOA from Mears.

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