During the 1998 MLB season San Diego Padres superstar Tony Gwynn batted .321 with 148 hits and 69 runs batted in. Oh and by the way he was 38 years old. He would go on to hit a career .341 with 3141 hits to his credit. One of those milestone hits – No. 2919 – is captured within this lot via two game used items from the September 18 1998 game when the Padres hosted the Colorado Rockies at Qualcomm Stadium. Though the game ended 4-1 in Colorado’s favor Gwynn did what he always did: get a hit. The late “Mr. Padre” went 1-for-4 that evening with a single his favorite kind of hit. Did you know he collected 2378 of them?

The two game-used items offered within this lot are the actual baseball he hit for the single that evening and the bat he swung to do it. The rather nondescript official N.L. (Coleman) baseball is autographed on the sweet spot by Gwynn and has the number “2919” notated on the east panel underneath the “Rawlings” logo. Gwynn signed the ball in black ink which has faded a bit over time. The 33-inch tall Louisville Slugger ash bat shows plenty of game use with plenty of bat rack marks throughout the barrel and nearly eight inches worth of pine tar up and down the handle. The Genuine B267 Tony Gwynn model bat has been signed by Gwynn on the barrel in black fine point marker. It is also notated underneath the engraved “SAN DIEGO PADRES” callout on the barrel with “#2919” also in black fine point marker. The handle of the bat includes five inches’ worth of adhesive tape wrapped around the handle and includes the following text in black marker on the knob: “B267 33-30.5 19” to indicate the model number length weight in ounces and Gwynn’s uniform number.

Includes Letter of Provenance from the San Diego Hall of Champions.