Black Betsy facts for kids
Black Betsy was a famous baseball bat. It belonged to a legendary baseball player named Shoeless Joe Jackson. He was a very skilled hitter. The bat was made when Joe was just 15 years old.
Black Betsy became one of the most well-known items in baseball history. In 2001, it set a record for the highest price ever paid for a baseball bat. It sold for $577,610! Later, in 2004, another bat belonging to Babe Ruth broke that record.
Contents
Making Black Betsy
A local baseball fan named Charlie Ferguson made Black Betsy. He lived in South Carolina. He used wood from the northern side of a hickory tree. This made the bat very strong.
The bat was about 36 inches (91 cm) long. It weighed about 48 ounces (1.4 kg). Joe Jackson liked bats that were dark. So, Ferguson used tobacco juice to make Black Betsy black.
Joe Jackson started playing in the minor leagues. Fans would often shout "Give 'em Black Betsy!" when he came up to bat. This shows how popular the bat was.
Black Betsy in the Major Leagues
Joe Jackson took Black Betsy with him to the American League. He joined the Philadelphia Athletics. Black Betsy was always his favorite bat.
In early 1911, the bat broke. Joe sent it to a big bat company, Hillerich & Bradsby, to get it fixed. He continued to use Black Betsy for the rest of his career in the major leagues.
Who Owned Black Betsy Later?
Joe Jackson kept Black Betsy until he passed away in 1951. After his wife died a few years later, the bat went to her cousin's son, Lester Erwin. He kept the bat on a bookcase for over 40 years.
In 2001, Erwin decided to sell Black Betsy online. It was sold in an auction for $525,100. The buyer was Rob Mitchell. The bat was offered for sale again in 2005 and 2008. It sold for $301,000 in 2008.
Reproductions of the Bat
Some sports companies made copies of Black Betsy. Spalding and Hillerich & Bradsby started selling these bats to fans in the 1910s.
A virtual museum called The National Pastime Museum opened in 2013. It showed a bat that was also called "Black Betsy." This bat was sold at an auction in 2016 for $583,500. The auction house said it was a very rare bat used by Joe Jackson. However, Lester Erwin said that the bat he sold in 2001 was the true "Black Betsy."
