[bat_master]

Thanks everyone for the kind words about the Foxx bat. I'm just glad it is finally home! You see, this bat has a bit of a back story to it. Get ready for a soul baring tale with details so fuzzy with the passage of time that I had to go back through emails just to get the timeline correct.

This story starts in July of 2009 with a completely random phone call that I received from the owner of the bat. I was still living in Minnesota and was still married to who is now my ex-wife. A lot has changed since then.

The owner called me and said that he had a bat that said 'Jimmie Foxx' on it. Being somewhat skeptical due to the rare nature of Foxx bats, I asked him what was in the center label; whether it was 125 or something else, like 40JF. He responded that it had a 125. I next asked him if there was anything stamped into the knob. He said no...not that he could see. He also mentioned that there was some writing on the barrel that looked like possibly crayon.

At that point, if I remember right I told him that this was potentially a pretty valuable bat that and that I would really like to have him send me some photos. He did, and after examining the pictures I was able to tell that this was a 1932 Jimmie Foxx made of hickory wood which was correct for the majority of his orders that year. Unfortunately, while the side written date and team name were visible the name was not. However, the date was not listed in Foxx's records so I was pretty confident that it was most likely not returned to the factory by Foxx. At the time, I was in no position to buy it or even make an offer and even though he isn't in the hobby, he was content to enjoy it for awhile. In retrospect this was a good thing as just a month later I was in the middle of a divorce.

Looking back through my emails I see we exchanged 8 messages in 2009 and just 3 in 2010. The first of those messages in 2010 was a patient inquiry to see if he still had it and to let him know that if he was ready to sell at some point...I was interested in buying.

Fast forward to January 2011...I contacted him again with another patient inquiry and this time he informed me that he was expecting the birth of his first child and that, as life changes happen, this might be a good time to sell. We discussed the bat at length and eventually I made him an offer. It wasn't cheap, but for what it was, I thought it was pretty reasonable. I sent him a down payment on it that September.

Fast forward to 2013...2 years of just the occasional email letting him know that I was still around. During that time, I bought a house and was married again. Both costly endeavors.

Fast forward to February 2014...I found out that I'm going to be a father. I had a good friend of mine (who has kids already) stress to me the importance of getting this deal done. I'm glad he did. It's ironic that the life changing event that caused the owner to finally sell was the same event that caused me to buy.

Throughout the spring of 2014 I made some deals and was able to raise the majority of the remaining balance. He agreed that after that was paid he would send me the bat for examination and I could pay off the last couple thousand dollars over time. Well worth it and I'm glad he had the patience to stick with me.

My daughter will be here in October. If we can't come up with a middle name I may slyly suggest "Foxx".