Consider the bat a baton, handed from a distinctly American sports legend on his last legs to a youngster about to embark on a distinctly American adulthood. Just don’t call it pure Hollywood: Bing Russell knew fact from fiction, and the story of Lou Gehrig giving him the last bat he used to hit a home run is reality without a show, not yet anyway.
SCP Auctions is currently taking bids on the bat, and it’s projected to be one of most valuable baseball pieces ever sold. How it went from Gehrig’s python-like grip to the trembling hands of a 12-year-old boy in the dugout to safekeeping for more than 70 years is a fascinating tale, one that Bing’s children (who include veteran leading man Kurt Russell) and grandchildren (who include former major leaguer Matt Franco) want made public.
Bing died in 2003 at 76. Kurt starred in the acclaimed sports movie “Miracle” in 2004. Matt’s 20-year pro career ended in 2006. All the while, the bat rested under an umbrella stand in the home of Kurt’s sister and Matt’s mom, Jill Franco.
Matt visited her earlier this year, and there it was. He lifted the bat, so heavy, so formidable, just the way he remembered the first time he held it as a kid. He thought about his grandfather, the man the family called “Pa,” how he’d traveled to every one of the dozen or so minor and major league cities Matt played in just to watch his at-bats. The pride he felt. The tales he told.
“It’s time the world knows Pa’s story, and the best way to tell it by getting this bat to someone who can display it,” Matt said to his mom.
They called Kurt and talked it over. The decision came down to letting the lumber breathe.
Get it out from under the umbrella stand and into the sunlight. Let it become a conduit connecting Lou Gehrig’s stately greatness to Bing Russell’s rollicking life to new owners who ideally would display their acquisition. The story might spread. Click here to read the complete story.