Virginia Stinnett was rummaging through her closet in a Virginia home that represents a major point in America’s history when she came across a baseball bat.
The year was 1989, about 125 years after the Civil War ended. The house that she had inherited from a previous generation that played a role in America’s deadliest war now included what is the oldest known Louisville Slugger baseball bat, circa 1890-1893.
For a few thousand, you can purchase the oldest known Louisville Slugger baseball bat. https://t.co/n8YmPalm8G pic.twitter.com/AGXKDcX3YR
— Sportsnaut (@Sportsnaut) July 21, 2018
The bat is now being put on the auction block by Goldin Auctions and could fetch north of $5,000.
But it’s the story of the bat that is pretty remarkable.
According to Forbes, Stinnett remembers playing baseball with her father using that bat outside of their 1830s era home in Virginia.
It’s the same home that housed some of the biggest figures of the Civil War, including Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet as well as Abraham Lincoln Secretary of State William Seward.
Stinnett’s father was a five great-grandson of American Revolutionary War figure Nathaniel Pendleton.
For her part, Stinnett is extremely happy to be a part of this history.
“This is really so fun and exciting,” Stinnett told Forbes. “I’m just absolutely shocked what people pay for cards and different things. I had no idea!”
Certainly, the bat and its history is something to behold. The property that housed it and the figures who owned said bat also represented a foregone time in American History, one that would make the great Ken Burns proud.