NEW YORK (Reuters) – A bat used by baseball hero Jackie Robinson in the 1949 All-Star Game sold at auction on Saturday for $1.08 million, New Jersey-based Goldin Auctions said.
Robinson, who broke Major League Baseball’s (MLB) color barrier in 1947, played the Mid-Summer Classic at his home park, Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn, the same year that he claimed the National League Most Valuable Player Award.
The bat was one of two made for Robinson for the game, Goldin said, and shows “light game use.”
A spokesman for the auctioneer said he could not provide the identity of the buyer.
“The bat has been in the Robinson family archives since the day it was first used by Jackie and I guarantee that is 100% authentic,” Robinson’s widow, Rachel, said in a statement provided by Goldin. The bat had previously hung in the Robinson family home.
While its seven-figure sale places it among the priciest pieces of sports memorabilia, the most expensive baseball bat ever sold at auction remains one used by Babe Ruth to hit the first home run at Yankee Stadium in 1923, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; editing by Clare Fallon)
