PITTSBURGH — Rob Shelling's vast collection of baseball bats is enough to make any memorabilia junkie drool with jealousy. There's one Babe Ruth swung while cracking a home run in the first MLB All-Star Game in 1933. Another Joe DiMaggio used during his 56-game hitting streak eight years later.
Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial and Lou Gehrig are all represented in the group of more than 150 bats, many of which never leave a private vault. Shelling, an orthodontist from Boca Raton, Fla., even has his own Instagram account (@TheBatVault) to showcase the lot.
Yet as incredible as Shelling's assemblage of wooden antiquities might be, there's one bat that stands out above the rest: the one Pirates legend Roberto Clemente used to notch his 3,000th hit 50 years ago. Not only for what it means to the Great One's legacy but also the story behind how he wound up with such a rare find.
