The Tale of a Fake Louis Santop Bat

[aelefson]

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