On September 12, 2016, Red Sox’ beloved slugger and DH David Ortiz was looking to put the finishing touches on a career that brought him to the threshold of Cooperstown. Up until that night he had tallied 535 career home runs and the season was not quite over yet. This gave him a few more games in which to tie and surpass the career home run total of another legend of the game: Mickey Mantle.
That night the Baltimore Orioles were in town, and Ortiz had already gotten a hit and scored a run in Boston’s 5-run first inning, and the Sox scored a run in each inning up through the sixth. The Boston batters were hitting whoever the Orioles put on the mound and was apparent to all who packed into Fenway Park that night that conditions were right for Ortiz to make history. In the bottom of the sixth inning, third O’s pitcher Oliver Drake got a one-strike count on Ortiz, but the Boston DH hammered the next pitch over the right field wall. The blast was Big Papi’s 536th career homer, tying him on the home run list with the great Mickey Mantle. This is the Marucci LDM model bat that Ortiz used to hit that historic home run. The bat shows light game use with some ball marks found on the barrel with white leather scuffs. The handle has been taped with custom Ortiz Lizard Skin graphic tape to enhance the grip and the date of manufacture “08/02/16” and Ortiz’s number “34” are stamped into the knob. Big Papi has signed the barrel in silver pen and inscribed: “Game Used HR # 536 9/12/16.” The bat comes with a MLB Authenticated hologram (JB042237) for the game use and a LOA from David Ortiz himself.