What's the best way to clean up old bats?
 

Anyone have a tutorial? What products are safe to use? I'd like to clean up this lot. Is Murphy's Oil Soap safe?...also anyone know why minor leaguers in the 1950s might have taped over "Genuine" on their Louisville Sluggers?

Try contacting this guy, http://www.baseballbatrepair.com/ maybe he can give you an idea of what you can do and use.

Nice lot of bats. Who are the players?

They all look like pro model bats and those are best to leave alone and not clean. The value is in the use, cleaning them would devalue them.

If they are minor leaguers, with no major league experience, and you want to clean them to improve their appearance, you're going to have a tough time. The heavy ball marks are tough to get rid of unless you refinish the bats completely.

Oil soap is good for cleaning, but any open grain will swell up from the water and sometimes be wider than before. If you want to post some close ups, I'll let you know what I would do. Your best bet, might be just lemon oil them to even out the finish and give them some shine
Matt

Thanks for the tip Matt...I'll get some Lemon oil. None of these guys were stars...I'd just like the bats to look a bit nicer.

Any idea on why minor leaguers would have covered up "Genuine" with tape?

Dewey, the players are:

Lincoln Chiefs (1959-61)
Al Bullock
Donald Gordon
Manly "Shot" Johnston
Herman Williamsen (3 bats)
Deacon Jones
Charles Lehman
Eugene Martin

and

Tony Cannizzo -Sioux City 1959

What's the best way to clean up old bats?
 

I use just a bit of oil myself with a rag, just to clean some of the dirt off, but you do not want to lose that original look either. Most of the time I will leave a bat as is unless it really needs some work!

Jimmy