Holy shit, guys. You know what I did tonight?

I held the bat that Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs with in 1927. No kidding.

This sounds so lame, but I swear I had tingles all over my body the entire time. You aren't supposed to touch stuff like that with your bare hands.

The way the story goes, the bat broke, and Ruth sent it to Louisville Slugger so they could make him replicas in the same shape, weight, etc. They repaired the bat in order to do it, and kept it in their vault. Some time back LS put its entire vault up for auction, the guy who owns my company bought it last weekend. Proudly declares he got it for "less than $100K". Ruth put a notch in the handle every time he hit a home run. Shit belongs in a museum, not in my grubby hands.

boy that is so lame

when can i visit

srsly, that's freaking incredible.

He didn't break his bat that whole year? That's amazing.

Update - understand the guy who let me hold it (I'm looking at videos and people don't hold them with their bare hands... cause you aren't supposed to) is eccentric. He said 1927 but I'm doing some research and it's not from 1927 - I know this because there's only one of those bats known to exist, Ruth took a break from notching his bat in 1927 because his bats kept going missing, and that bat went up for auction on August 2nd 2012 and I can tell from the photos the bat I held wasn't it.

The bat is Ruth's bat though, no doubt about it, and it had a hell of a lot of notches in the handle. I'll have to get him to read his paperwork and stop guessing at the year so I'll have context. I'm so irritated that I a) Didn't make him turn over the package with all the authenticity stuff in it and b) didn't get a photo taken with it. I might get another chance though.

Wow, that rules. I was getting chills the whole time I was in Cooperstown a couple years ago. Can't imagine holding something that legendary in my hands.

pop quiz: what's the largest food franchise (by locations) in the US and the world? probably wouldn'tve been in my first 10 guesses...

Subway?

cheater

PJ Whelihan's?

they're #2

thank you, bill.

Now, when you look at THIS link, you see what the fuss is.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle ... story.html

This is the bat, no doubt about it. Described all the way down to the shipping label, and the broken bat/repair story. He must have gotten the 1927 from the manufacture date.

VoxOrion wrote:This is the bat, no doubt about it. Described all the way down to the shipping label, and the broken bat/repair story. He must have gotten the 1927 from the manufacture date.

I can't believe I held that thing (also gloveless). I can't believe he used to swing that thing - 40.5 ounces??

We will get a photo op.

Bucky wrote:cheater

i remember reading that they were the fastest growing because it's incredibly cheap to run a franchise. next time you go to a Subway look at how little space everything takes up. compare that to a typical fast food burger joint where the kitchen is the size of an entire Subway alone. plus you barely have to do anything to prepare their food. the highest maintenance orders they take require about one minute in a toaster, and even though their meal deal is comparably cheap it's still incredibly overpriced for what it is. you can shove a Subway into any big box retail store without sacrificing much of any overhead real estate, and they'll make a ton of money. I find myself eating there more than almost every place within a mile radius of my office because their ubiquity and convenience is overwhelming. It's almost impossible for me not to eat at Subway at least once a month. multiply that by everyone else in the few surrounding blocks and it's no surprise they're kicking everybody's ass.

Shore wrote:

VoxOrion wrote:This is the bat, no doubt about it. Described all the way down to the shipping label, and the broken bat/repair story. He must have gotten the 1927 from the manufacture date.

I can't believe I held that thing (also gloveless). I can't believe he used to swing that thing - 40.5 ounces??

We will get a photo op.

Yeah, I was about to ask how big it was. I remember when I was in Cooperstown seeing one of Ruth's bats and just being absolutely floored by how gigantic it was. It was like a tree trunk. I'm pretty sure the one I saw was even heavier (no lie, I think it was about 48 oz. maybe more), but I didn't get to hold it. Awesome.

(A lot of /PiP material there)

VoxOrion wrote:Holy shit, guys. You know what I did tonight?

I held the bat that Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs with in 1927. No kidding.

This sounds so lame, but I swear I had tingles all over my body the entire time. You aren't supposed to touch stuff like that with your bare hands.

The way the story goes, the bat broke, and Ruth sent it to Louisville Slugger so they could make him replicas in the same shape, weight, etc. They repaired the bat in order to do it, and kept it in their vault. Some time back LS put its entire vault up for auction, the guy who owns my company bought it last weekend. Proudly declares he got it for "less than $100K". Ruth put a notch in the handle every time he hit a home run. Shit belongs in a museum, not in my grubby hands.

i get this completely. this is less cool than holding babe ruth's bat that he hit 60 home runs with, but still had the same reaction as you. my grandparents lived down the street from matt millen and my sister ended up becoming friends with matt's daughter and it turns out my parents were acquaintances of matt's in high school. we got invited over to their house one day for a kind of play-date/dinner kind of thing. anyway, matt millen let me wear all 4 of his superbowl rings on my fingers. i got chills when i put them on. it was something i'll always remember.

Sorta wish I wasn't with my liberal uncle who lives in Racine (in Ryan's district) at the beach so I could celebrate like an asshole tomorrow

He's pissed about all this and it makes it awkward

SK790 wrote:

VoxOrion wrote:Holy shit, guys. You know what I did tonight?

I held the bat that Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs with in 1927. No kidding.

This sounds so lame, but I swear I had tingles all over my body the entire time. You aren't supposed to touch stuff like that with your bare hands.

The way the story goes, the bat broke, and Ruth sent it to Louisville Slugger so they could make him replicas in the same shape, weight, etc. They repaired the bat in order to do it, and kept it in their vault. Some time back LS put its entire vault up for auction, the guy who owns my company bought it last weekend. Proudly declares he got it for "less than $100K". Ruth put a notch in the handle every time he hit a home run. Shit belongs in a museum, not in my grubby hands.

i get this completely. this is less cool than holding babe ruth's bat that he hit 60 home runs with, but still had the same reaction as you. my grandparents lived down the street from matt millen and my sister ended up becoming friends with matt's daughter and it turns out my parents were acquaintances of matt's in high school. we got invited over to their house one day for a kind of play-date/dinner kind of thing. anyway, matt millen let me wear all 4 of his superbowl rings on my fingers. i got chills when i put them on. it was something i'll always remember.

wow, that fucking owns

My mother in law just guilted my wife into driving to a cafe in Lansdale tomorrow to have coffee. I might go early and strap a gun to the toilet.