One of the best parts about a garage sale is you never know what you’re going to come across.
Who knows, it could be the perfect chair you were looking for – or perhaps a slew of amazing books?
It could even be an item that’s not only valuable, but an important part of history too.
In the story below, you’ll see something truly remarkable, and it was just laying on the ground, strewn amongst some sports equipment in the driveway.
Bruce Scapecchi was out doing what he does every Saturday morning, driving around to garage sales and looking to discover something special.
Scapecchi says each summer he attends upwards of five thousand garage sales, so he’s a veteran and an expert in the garage sale game.
He parked his car and walked up the suburban driveway on a cookie-cutter street.
The little garage sale looked just like any other, but then he spotted something that might just be extraordinary.
There was a wooden bat on the ground under a ping-pong table.
Really nondescript if you weren’t looking for the spectacular. It was tossed down there with some aluminum baseball bats.
It may have looked like nothing, but Scapecchi had an eye for interesting finds.
He asked the owner how much, and Sue McEntee told him one dollar.
Scapecchi asked her if she knew what the item really was.
Unsure of why he was asking such a simple question, she told him it was an old baseball bat. Nothing special, and he could have it for a dollar cash.
Scapecchi wasn’t absolutely sure about this baseball bat, but he did recognize it as having a unique grip that may belong to a specific and historic player.
He took McEntee aside and told her she might have something special.
He then asked if she had a pencil. McEntee went inside and brought out a pencil, her interest piqued.
A treasure was revealed.
Scapecchi rubbed the graphite from the pencil across a certain part of the bat, which highlighted something that proved this was no ordinary piece of maple.
The graphite made something stand out, an engraving was carved into the wood.
The engraving was worn down over the years but it was clear whose bat this once was.
Reading the name brought back memories to McEntee’s mind. She thought of her Uncle, a real-life major leaguer named Joe Hatten.
Now that would be too simple if the bat belonged to her uncle. No, the story is way more than that.
The name that was engraved on the bat was someone her uncle Joe had played with for the Brooklyn Dodgers back in the year 1947.
A historic year for baseball and an even more historic year for American civilization writ large.
The name was right there, this bat belonged to the one and only Jackie Robinson.
Jackie Robinson is an American baseball player who was the first African American to break the color line and play in Major League Baseball.
In 1947, Robinson put on a Dodgers uniform and took the field at First Base amidst booing, racial slurs, and cheering.
Whether anyone liked it or not the world changed that day, for the better.
Robinson received the inaugural Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, he was an All-Star for six seasons and elected National League MVP in 1949.
He played in six world series and was quintessential to the team in 1955 when Dodgers won the world series. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
So, did the homeowner decide to keep the bat? You betcha!
Just think of who in your circle will love to hear about this amazing and magical find at a neighborhood garage sale.
It kinda makes you want to go garage sale hunting this weekend, doesn’t it?
Watch the video below to learn more about this incredible story!
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Source: YouTube – KCCI, Jackie Robinson Wikipedia
