When Sue McEntee set up her garage sale, she intended to get rid of the junk that had been cluttering her house and garage longer than she wished it had. What she didn’t know was that one “junk” item wasn’t really junk at all.

Garage sales hit yards across American every year when the weather gets nice enough to allow. They are a great way to pass on items we no longer want or need to someone else that might want or need them. They make great fundraiser opportunities for clubs and organizations, and they are a great place to find a good bargain for some lucky shoppers.

Bruce Scapecchi was one of those lucky shoppers the day he stopped by McEntee’s garage sale. He saw a bunch of old bats laying underneath a folding metal table, but one bat in particular caught his eye. It was an old wooden bat whose handle was wrapped with cloth tape.

The bat had likely been used by neighborhood boys for years dreaming of being the next greatest baseball player. What those boys didn’t realize was that their old wooden bat really had been used by one of the greatest baseball players of all time; Jackie Robinson.

Jackie Robinson was the first African American baseball player to play professional baseball. He’s even in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Robinson played for the Brooklyn Dodgers and always marked his bat with a special mark.

Scapecchi, being an honest man, went and told McEntee what he believed about the bat. They used a piece of paper and crayon to find the mark that Robinson made on his bats, and there it was. The bat had indeed belonged to Jackie Robinson.

McEntee, although shocked to find out the bat had belonged to Robinson, said she wasn’t surprised that she had gotten ahold of it. Her uncle, afterall, had played for the Dodgers with Robinson.

Her uncle, Joe Hattan, known as Lefty Joe, had played baseball in the 1940’s alongside Robinson. Her family had a long history of baseball, an plenty of memorabilia to go with it.

So what did McEntee decide to do with the bat once she learned its history? Watch the video below. You won’t believe it.