HE HANDED HIM A BAT ... WAS IT THE BAT THAT HIT THE 60TH?

in the Otsego Farmer — a newspaper in Cooperstown, where the Hall of Fame is located — as saying at the time that then-Yankees manager Miller Huggins gave him the bat after the game on Sept. 30, 1927.

Taube, who has done extensive research on Ruth’s bats, doesn’t dispute Kahn was given a bat after that game, but he doesn’t believe it was the one used for the record-breaking homer.

“It’s very unlikely that on Sept. 30, Miller Huggins comes down into the lockerroom and says, ‘Babe, give me had with Joe Brown, and the fact he had already gifted him with the 1926 World Series bat,” Taube said, “and especially that the season wasn’t over yet when Kahn says Miller Huggins and/or Ruth gave him the bat — we just don’t see that happening.”

The Hall of Fame reiterated it is confident the bat in its possession is the one Ruth used to hit the historic homer.

“The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is dedicated to preserving baseball’s history,” Jon Shestakofsky, the Hall’s vice-president of communications and edu- cation, said in an email to The Associated Press. “One of the institution’s primary responsibilities is to ensure that artifacts in our collection are portrayed accurately. When research shows that an object is incorrectly labelled, or when we have been presented with evidence that proves an artifact is misattributed, we resolve the matter appropriately and with transparency.

“The Hall of Fame remains very comfortable with the sound provenance and authenticity of the bat in our collection. The Museum’s stance on the bat has not changed since it was accessioned in 1939. Given the lack of proof to the contrary, we will continue to maintain that the bat in our collection is the one Babe Ruth used to hit his 60th home run of 1927.”

Taube said he was not aware of any other instance where there were multiple claims of such a high-profile item. He also wanted to make it clear he wasn’t trying to challenge the Hall of Fame.

“I respect them. It’s a baseball shrine,” he said. “You have to understand, during the day, there was no provenance. Many of the items that were given to the Hall were presented as, ‘Here’s the bat that did this, here’s the glove’ and there was no followup.

“Nobody is perfect.”