The Tale of a Fake Louis Santop Bat
 

Hi-

Last fall, I was offered a bat by a dealer I know well. He said it was a Negro League player's bat but he did not say the player was anyone of significance. He showed it to me, and the name Santop was stamped on the knob and barrel top (Hillerich and Bradsby bat, lots of scuffing where the name on the barrel should be, black stains as well). It was in very rough condition. I did not recognize the name immediately, but I happily paid 175.00 for it assuming he was a fairly no name player but still cool to have a bat used by a Negro Leaguer.

The dealer said it was part of the H and B "barn find" in the 1980s and he was given this to sell by a consigner. When I brought it home and found out that Louis Santop was a Hall of Fame player, I got excited. I got even more excited when I discovered another bat of his had sold at Lelands for 13000.00. That bat did not look like mine but mine was from an earlier labeling period so I did not think it was an issue.

A dealer I know arranged a meeting between myself, him, and a leading game used bat expert (I did not ask permission to share any names online so I will not name the expert but he is one of the leading authenticators for game used bats). He took one look at it and stated with certainty it is a real H and B bat but with fake stampings of Santop on the knob and barrel end. He said that one of the dealers who sold a lot of the barn find bats (again, I do not want to name names publicly but I can provide the name of the person who faked it via pm if desired) took bats where you could not read the player's name (or obliterated it himself) and stamped them with both famous players and "on demand".

The expert stated the faker did this with hall of famers but he would also get requests to see if he had any bats from lesser known players. The faker would then stamp a bat (like this one) and sell it the next day. It fits that Santop was not a high profile Negro Leaguer who was widely collected in the 1980s.

The bat does appear to have been someone's game used bat. It shows evidence of having been mailed back to Hillerich and Bradsby and has soot like staining which means it did originate from the barn find. Unfortunately, I think the name area is completely obliterated so I cannot even figure out which player this bat was made for.

Below are pictures of the bat. I post this to warn others about being wary of bats like this. I do not fault the dealer who sold it to me as I believe he did not know Santop was a HOFer and I think he would have put a much higher price tag on it if he knew. I also purchased it fully knowing I was taking a risk, and I doubt I would have given him a substantial amount of money if it was real and I sold it for a good amount (although I would have definitely purchased a few other things from him and I was struggling with whether to tell him if it was real).

As to the person who faked this, I do not think they are active any more in sports memorabilia (and the person might not even be alive). I just want to be careful in posting as I am reporting what an expert told me. I did confirm this with a leading auction house recently as well.

I am struggling with what to do with it. I considered throwing it away/burning it, but I do know it was once some player's bat. I have considered selling it as a fake, but I worry what will happen when/if it is resold again. For now I keep it as a reminder to be more careful, and hopefully this post will help other collectors. Overall, I have found many more amazing items so the 175.00 I wasted on this does not hurt as much, but it is a relatively expensive lesson.

Alan

Are the fake markings just on the very ends of the bat (the knob and whatever the other part is)? Sorry, I own but know little about markings on game used bats. If that is the only place it is marked, I recommend just sanding off the fake markings to return it to how it was before. That way it's no longer a fake bat and you can keep it in your collection and enjoy or you can sell it and provide full disclosure without concern about someone later trying to pass it off. I did something similar with a Mantle/Maris signed baseball. The Maris was fake, so I removed it while leaving a trace of the signature. So now I have a real ball without the cloud over it from the forgery.

I have a fake Happy Felsch bat that I plan on cutting into pieces and making a pen holder out of one part.

Agree. If the bat is game used and only the stamping is forged, remove/sand off the stamping and sell as a game used bat.

Sorry, I don't agree with the previous posters.
The fake labeling is now part of the bat's history, and should be embraced.
Plus, if I was interested in purchasing said bat, I would much rather have it as an attempted forgery of an interesting HOF player with a neat backstory, than a "generic" game used bat that I can't attribute anyway... Which has also been sanded-down and further damaged.

I don't think removing the forgery harms the bat or makes it less interesting. Generic bats from the 20's are cool. But if you leave it as it is, you or someone else might look at it to help identify other fakes.

Thank you everyone! I am leaning towards keeping it as is, but hopefully this thread will also help people learn from my mistake. I always use the Net54 photo hosting, so hopefully these photos will serve as a learning lesson for others for a long time.

Alan

I think that would be cool if you kept it as is...
Either way, neat bat.
I just wanted to also say it was nice talking to you at the Boston show Alan.

Brent

It was nice to meet you as well Brent! I really appreciated your knowledge of early hockey sticks and other vintage equipment. I hope you make it back down in November.

Alan