Shrödinger’s bat

As someone who’s been in the Hobby a while, here are the three questions I get most?

• “How much are my cards worth?”
• “How do I sell my collection?”
• “How can I tell if this is real?”

I’ll focus this article on the third of these questions, but I’ll flip the script by asking you about an item in my own collection.

Earlier this year, I acquired this Rennie Stennett model bat, marked up in black Sharpie with details from his famous 7-for-7 game at Wrigley Field.

Per the manufacturer, the bat dates to around 1975.

So now comes the question that must be asked. Is there any chance the bat is real, with real meaning from Rennie’s historic 7-for-7 game?

OF COURSE IT’S NOT REAL!

Before anyone gets too excited for me, there are at least two giant reasons to suspect the bat is not real.

For one thing, there is that nearly infallible rule of not just collecting: If it’s too good to be true, it probably is! Applying this rule, what are the chances I stumbled upon such an incredible piece of Pirates history for a price that wasn’t insane? At best, slim to none.

For another thing, the whereabouts of Rennie’s bat are already well known, and let’s just say its address isn’t exactly Western Springs, Illinois.

BUT WHAT IF…?

On the other hand, is it possible Stennett used multiple bats that day? When a guy comes to the plate seven times, a lot can happen, right? And this is where I zoom in one some features of the bat that likely went unnoticed in the earlier photos.

Look closely and you’ll see that the bat was split and then carefully repaired with small nails.

Could it be then that Rennie did use this bat that day, breaking it during one of his plate appearances, before subbing for the bat now at the Hall of Fame?

IF ONLY SOMEONE WERE THERE!

Remarkably in the span of a single month, I bumped into three people who were at the game:

• Manny Sanguillen, the Pirates catcher that day
• Nancy Faust, longtime White Sox organist who was the guest organist at Wrigley that day
• Dan Evans, former Los Angeles Dodgers GM and current SABR board member

In Dan’s case, he even kept score!

I was a bit too star-struck to ask Manny or Nancy about the game, but I did ask Dan. Unfortunately, Dan, whose baseball memory is up there with the best of them, did not recollect the game at the level of broken bats.

THE FINAL NAIL?

Though I’m wired to keep hope alive, I’ll add one more detail that seemingly settles the case. Look carefully at the Hall of Fame bat and you’ll see the name as R STENNETT. Meanwhile, my bat shows the name as RENNIE STENNETT. Several other differences are evident as well. Would bats used the same day really differ this much?

On the other hand, there are a couple other pictures of Stennett with a bat that day, and they do seem to signal some variety. First, here is a Charles E. Knoblock/AP photo that appeared in some papers the next day. Though it’s possible Rennie just grabbed a random bat for the photo, you’ll notice the “pro ring” (navy blue band) around both my bat and the Hall bat are not present in the Knoblock photo.

The second picture comes from MLB footage of Rennie’s seventh at bat. The video is about as high res as the Zapruder film, meaning any conclusions should be taken with a grain of salt. However, the lower half of the bat seems to be darker than the barrel. If so, this stands in contrast not only with my bat, which is evenly toned, but the Hall’s bat as well.

Still, even if Rennie did use multiple bats that day, it’s probably still a stretch to presume my bat was one of them.

SO YOU’RE SAYING THERE’S A CHANCE?!

I’ll offer two reasons that give me at least a glimmer of hope, the first relating to the bat’s previous owner. If I take the seller at his word, having spoken with him by phone at length, this bat was part of his father’s very large and extensive Pirates collection, the Clemente items alone fetching six figures. In other words, there was a lot of nice stuff where this bat came from.

Second, why mark up some random bat with all the details of the historic game? Sure, I’ve heard of players inscribing memorabilia to denote their achievements (e.g., “I bet on baseball. Pete Rose.”), but wouldn’t such a thing be accompanied by an autograph? Here, of course, there is none.

CONCLUSION

In the end, I’m left with only two possibilities, both seemingly unlikely.

• The bat is from the 7-for-7 game and now belongs to me of all people!
• The bat is not from the game but was meticulously repaired and marked up with details of the game.

Borrowing from quantum mechanics, I might consider the bat as real and not real, a sort of Shrödinger’s bat, neither awesome nor oddball but both.