Say It Ain't So Joe and SCD

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Posted By: Robert Plancich

The Joe DiMaggio "streak" bat that sold for $350,495.00 was not only owned by Dave Bushing and Dan Knoll it was also authenticted by them and their new employer - SCD Authentic. The price was the second highest price ever paid for a bat, second only to the Jackson Black Betsy which sold for over $500,000.00. The DiMaggio "streak" bat was sold in MastroNet's April 2004 auction which also set a record at that time which was the highest grossing single auction amount of $11.45 million, I believe.

Here's what I don't understand. T.S. O'Connell is the Editor of SCD and also writes a column titled the "Auction Circuit". In fact, T.S. O'Connell covered the record setting auction but didn't write one word about the second most expensive bat ever to be sold. He did mention some of the lessor bats in that auction like the Clemente and the Mays, but not one word about this historically significant piece of lumber.

Now this bat was graded by SCDA and was awarded their highest grade, an A10, which means that the bat is 100% authentic and is accompanied by "impeccable" and "ironclad" provenance. I would think that since this bat is without question, absolutely, positively authentic and was authenticted by two of their own, that this would be a "red letter" day for SCD and their newly launched authentication division, SCD Authentic.That they would want to acknowledge the work of their experts who uncovered this bat that had been hidden away for over 60 years! Surely they would want to take advantage of the advertising potential and their association with this historic and expensive artifact in order to promote their authentication services division. Still not one word about it.

I contacted T.S. O'Connell, as well as Rocky Landsverk, SCD Editorial Director, and asked them why nothing was written about this bat in O'Connell's "Auction Circuit" column even though they covered that auction and I never heard back from. I guess they assumed that the emails I was sending to them were simply rhetorical.