ALBANY, N.Y. — Former New York Yankees star Joe Pepitone has dropped his lawsuit against the Baseball Hall of Fame that sought the return of a Louisville Slugger bat that Mickey Mantle used to hit his 500th career home run.
David M. Barshay, a lawyer for Pepitone, filed a notice of voluntary dismissal Monday in U.S. District Court in Albany.
Pepitone had filed the suit in July, seeking compensatory damages of at least $1 million. The bat is currently valued at over $500,000, he claimed.
The suit alleged that Pepitone had agreed to lend the bat to the Hall of Fame “with the understanding and upon the condition that it would be returned to him at any time upon his request.”
The Hall of Fame says that the bat was donated and that it has owned it for more than 50 years.
Mantle hit his 500th home run off Baltimore’s Stu Miller at the original Yankee Stadium in the seventh inning on May 14, 1967. The lawsuit claimed that Mantle wanted to use a lighter bat than his signature model in order to generate bat speed and that Pepitone obliged by lending Mantle his bat after Pepitone had gone deep against Miller the previous inning.