This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/6/2022
Offered is a professional model TA 195 Williams Hanna Batrite Steel Temper Beaver Driver likely dating to St. Louis Browns slugger Ken Williams post-MLB tenure with the Portland Beavers of the PCL circa 1930-31. Bat currently measures 35", weighs 36 ounces and shows heavy use with ball marks, grain swelling, chipping to knob and wood loss to the barrel's end. A complete bio of Ken Williams:
Kenneth Roy Williams (June 28, 1890 – January 22, 1959) was an American professional baseball player. He played as an outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1915 to 1929. Williams began his major league career with the Cincinnati Reds before spending the majority of his playing days with the St. Louis Browns, and ended his career playing for the Boston Red Sox. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed . In 1922, Williams became the first player in MLB history to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season.
Williams was drafted into the United States Army in April 1918, and appeared in only two games for the Browns that season. He returned to the Browns in 1919 and hit .300 with 6 home runs in 65 games. In 1920, Major League Baseball outlawed specialty pitches such as the spitball and experienced a subsequent jump in the league batting averages as well as home runs.[6] In Williams' first full season as a regular player in 1920, he posted a .307 batting average along with 10 home runs and 72 runs batted in. He continued to improve in 1921 with a .347 batting average with 24 home runs, 117 runs batted in and a career-high .429 on-base percentage.
Williams had the best season of his career in 1922, leading the American League with 39 home runs and 155 runs batted in, as the Browns finished the season one game behind the pennant-winning New York Yankees. 32 of his 39 home runs were hit at home in Sportsman's Park. On August 7, 1922, during a game against the Washington Senators, he became the first player in American League history to hit two home runs in one inning. His 39 home runs topped Babe Ruth, who had led the league the previous four seasons, although Ruth had been suspended well into the 1922 season by Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis for violating a curb on barnstorming. Williams was one of only two players to break Babe Ruth's twelve-year string in which he led the American League in home runs (the other being Bob Meusel).Also in 1922, Williams also became the first player in major league history to have 30 home runs and 30-plus stolen bases in the same season; a feat which would not be achieved again until Willie Mays accomplished it with the New York Giants in 1956.
(67Q0039)
(MEARS Auction LOA)