Joe Pepitone Bat

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by drcy

Need a lot more evidence.

We don't know the veracity of Pepitone's tale, or what exactly are his rights and ownership or his evidence.

It's a P104 model which almost certainly is not a team ordered index bat. So I'm almost certain it's a bat ordered by Pepitone, to his personal specifications.

I think that, from a legal standpoint, it will come down to whether a bat Pepitone ordered from H&B, that the team probably paid for, belonged (belongs) to Joe or the Yankees.

As a GU collector, it brings up an interesting question. There are stories about valuable artwork that was stolen during the last World War, that has been claimed and returned to the original owners. Could a MLB team make the same type of claims? For example, could they sue to recover one of those million dollar Ruth jerseys, stating the garment belonged to the Yankees and was at some point taken by somebody without the Yankees consent?

I wonder if there is a statute of limitations on the return of stolen property. I doubt any of my GU bats or jerseys were sold by the teams that originally owned them.