Hillerich and Bradsby spline bats
 

A few months back I posted a number of pics of my spline bats and several people wondered where the term spline came from. I have not yet found information on its origin but did run across several auctions from different houses showing Hillerich and Bradsby bats, labeled "spline" where powerized should be, from the early to mid 60's that were apparently prototypes sent to major league teams. These bats had a hickory strip on the back of the barrel that, as far as I can tell, was supposed to help prevent grain separation. Here is one of those that appeared in a Huggins and Scott auction.

http://nov11.hugginsandscott.com/cgi...l?itemid=39212

John

I actually like spline bats. It's been debated whether or not they were game used or not, but I would imagine that a few we're at least used in bp. I just don't recall seeing any that had any player characteristics.

They display well though.

I just sold a Eddie Matthews. It actually matched his records but couldn't be connected to him because it had spline and not powerized.