During the 1920’s, Rogers Hornsby, the “Rajah”, was the National League’s answer to Babe Ruth. Hornsby ate, slept and breathed hitting. He eschewed alcohol and smoking and avoided even reading and attending movies lest it harm his batting eye. Hornsby’s iron discipline paid off as he became the most feared National League batter during the Roaring Twenties.

In the stretch in which Hornsby used this bat, 1928-1930, the Rajah won the batting crown in 1928, was the National League MVP in 1929, won the Triple Crown and compiled and impressive three-season batting average of .377. To say this bat dates to Hornsby’s prime years would be an understatement. The Hillerich & Bradsby bat is 35 inches and weighs 35.3 ounces displaying outstanding use with a crack on the handle. There is an approximately 10 ½ x 1 ¼-inch piece missing from the back barrel, along with a small chip on the knob. The handle crack and chip knob have been repaired, while the piece on the back barrel has been restored. The barrel has many ball marks and the tape on the handle that handle that had secured the crack has been removed. There is also some checking or grain swelling from repeated ball contact on the front and back barrel.

This bat displays a C-5A center brand that appeared on Hillerich & Bradsby professional model bats from 1925 to 1933. There were two versions of the brand with the first being a “base lined” 125, which appeared on most bats produced from 1925 to 1928. The second version had a non-base lined 125 that appeared on most bats from 1928 to 1933. A review of Hornsby’s ordering record (Professional Bat Ordering Records or PBOR) and caliper measurements by the game experts at PSA/DNA have determined that this model is the “H117” model based on the “His 4-28-27” orders from 1927 and 1928.

With the absence of the model number, the PBOR has two schematics that include 18 points of measurement from the knob to the top of the barrel to determine the dimensions. Those models were referred to as “His Hornsby” and “His Regular Hornsby” with the only difference coming from the size of the knobs. “His Hornsby” models had the larger “Ruth Knob”, while the “His Regular Hornsby” had smaller tapered knobs. The caliper measurements did not match these models, thus it was determined to be from the “His 4-28-27” order. The length and weight of this bat is consistent with the 4-28-27 bats ordered by Hornsby, with this bat weighing 34.73 ounces. Hornbsy’s bats from that order weighed 36 to 38 ounces. An incredible gamer from one of the inaugural members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and this bat comes with a LOA from PSA/DNA (1B25117), who have graded this bat a GU 7.5.

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