Each July, baseball royalty meets in Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and stars of yesteryear convene to exchange yarn of their glory in the sun. Beginning in 1936, baseball commenced to pay homage to its best in ceremonious enshrinement - and then eternally immortalized in their individual museum plaques. Over the years, Cooperstown has become an institution of hallowed renown, and throughout the community of the game, other supportive institutions have since risen to chorus those chosen masters of the diamond. Of the latter, there appeared in 1983 the first in an annual series of commemorative bats. These were crafted by Louisville Slugger, similar in design to that company's popular black bats, except that Hall of Fame commemorative bats were all produced with a dark cherry color finish. In that first year, 1983, there were celebrated the charter members of the Hall of Fame as their names were emblazoned on the barrel of the bats. Then, proceeding in '84, the second class of enshrinees (i.e. 1937) was similarly memorialized. Correspondingly, each year since as progressed in the same fashion. From the onset, 500 serialized bats were produced each year. All, of course, are uniformly dimensioned Louisville Sluggers, and all of them are minimally NM/MT.

This 1979 Hall of Fame bat is highlighted by Hack Wilson, Willie Mays and Warren Giles. This is numbered 164/500 and signed by Mays in gold paint pen. The signature rates "9-10".

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