As the Great Depression took hold throughout the United States, Connie Mack, owner and manager of the Philadelphia Athletics was hit particularly hard. His loss in the Stock Market Crash was so devastating that he was forced to break up what many historians consider the greatest baseball team ever assembled – the 1929-1931 A’s. This remarkable club succeeded in unseating Babe Ruth and the Yankees as the AL’s best team and then proceeded to win three pennants and back-to-back World Series. Besides the unbeatable pitching of Lefty Grove and George Earnshaw, Mack fielded the hardest hitting batting lineup the game had ever seen - Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Cochrane, Jimmy Dykes, Mule Haas and Al Simmons.

Of these, Simmons was the classiest, the perfect combination of power and contact. But despite the success of Simmons and the rest of the A’s lineup, by 1932 Mack was forced to destroy his greatest ballclub. In one of the biggest blockbuster trades up to that point, Simmons, Dykes and Haas were sold to the Chicago White Sox in what was described as the largest player purchase in American League history. The trade was a success as far as Simmons was concerned, with the future Hall of Famer batting .331 then .344 in his first two season with the Sox. This bat was used by Simmons during the 1933 and 1934 seasons. And besides being a first-rate Al Simmons gamer, this unique bat has been signed in black fountain pen by Simmons along with Mule Haas and Jimmy Dykes, the two former A’s who were part of the biggest player trade to date. In the pre-model days at Hillerich & Bradsby, the company referred to this model bat ordered by Simmons as “His 2-20-33.” Using the length, weight, and center brand style, PSA/DNA was able to date this bat to the 1933 to 1934 seasons, his first ones in Chicago. The bat comes with a LOA from PSA/DNA (1B02519) for the game use and has been graded a near-perfect GU 9.5, plus a LOA from Steve Grad of Beckett Authentication (A56182) for the signatures.