Hey Jim, the 1905 date for Wagner's H&S endorsement is usually cited, but do we know for sure that no other company had endorsements sooner? If Bud made the first Louisville bat for Pete Browning in the mid-1880s, there seems to be a two-decade gap between, with more than enough time for a secondary maker to possibly enter into the market of producing player bats. I seem to remember YEARS AGO a Wright & Ditson bat on Ebay that was advertised as a late-19th century example, with "Kelly" in block letters, with the seller claiming it was produced for King Kelly.
I don't have access to my Hillerich & Bradsby book currently, the H&B Wiki page mention's the date, but their source is a 2009 New Yorker article that states "Although athletes have been endorsing products for more than a century—beginning, by most accounts, in 1905, when Honus Wagner put his name on Louisville Slugger bats". The use of "by most accounts" is troubling. Are there any sources contemporary to Wagner's signing with H&B that state the company was entering new territory? This may have all been confirmed previously, I'm just unaware if it has?
Brent
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