December Pick Ups
 

I ordered this in October, LS mailed it on Nov 6, and I received it about an hour ago. I will say the wonderful person named Mary at Louisville Slugger was amazing at customer service.

Very nice, Ben, but you need to sign it in blue Sharpie. ;):D

True! It will also help the value once you use it in a game.

I couldn't hit water if I fell out of a boat. Maybe if I used a tee or some steroids.:)

I noticed LS made custom display bats so I figured it would be a cool conversation piece. It was only $80 delivered, they have a 20% off sale going on now so they are even cheaper.

It's a very, very cool thing to have. And reasonable to afford.

new bat
 

My new Lloyd Waner bat arrived today! Up until now, I have been trying to tell myself that an H&B 250, bone rubbed Lloyd Waner model with inch marks on the knob was close enough because it is the right size and because it allegedly once belonged to Reds' long-time groundskeeper Matty Schwab (!), but now I have a somewhat more plausible pro model.

Love the personalized Louisville Slugger.

Lived and worked in Kentucky for 5 years and was gifted one of these as a goodbye gift from work when we moved.

The Louisville Slugger Museum is a very cool spot that I recommend for anyone going through the area.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

That's awesome Ben. Flame finished is the way to go. Let me guess, 36 in 38 Oz? 👍

34" and 34 Oz is the real length/weight on this one. My favorite bats are the Flame Treated finished ones. It is a display quality bat so you can't pick any specific weight/length.

They also have higher quality bats you can really use. You can get the length and weight you want on those.

Sorry Ben, I was just making a joke about stepping up to the plate with super human strength, swinging a tree trunk against a 95 mph fastball. That joke did not translate well in writing.:p

Cool bat Ben.

Congratulations on that Waner bat!

Love the Waner bat. Picked up this 1965-68 Nellie Fox bat.

Thanks, Ron. The Fox bat is a beauty. Congratulations. Was that one of your legendary flea market finds?

Thanks Mark. No not a flea market find but an Ebay find. The seller actually copied the title from another Nellie Fox retail bat that was listed by a different seller and put it as his lol. The title listed the bat as 33" but when I got it in it measures at 34".

Sometimes the surprises are GOOD surprises!

Picked up a 1950s Stan Jok bat.

federal league
 

recent REA pick-up

bf104
 

another recent pick-up

1915 Federal League Annual Pass
 

1915 was the last year for the startup Federal League.
This scarce pass from the recent REA Auction is a great fit for my no-hitter collection because four Federal League no-hit games were pitched in 1915.
1915 Federal League no-hitters:

Frank Allen of the Pittsburgh Rebels vs. the St. Louis Terriers on 4/24/1915
Claude Hendrix of the Chicago Whales vs. the Pittsburgh Rebels on 5/15/1915
Alex "Miles" Main of the KC Packers vs. the Buffalo Blues on 8/16/1915
Dave "Davie" Davenport of the St. Louis Terriers vs. the Chicago Whales on 9/7/1915

Wow...a 1914 AND 1915 Federal League pass picked up by two of our members. Very nice! I hope you guys didn't drive up the bidding on each other. LOL

I can't speak for Matty39, but FYI I only bid on the 1915 pass.
I suspect he bid on it as well. Regardless, I'm happy to own it, Mike.

Is that the bat he hit his home run with? :p

Fresh to Hobby
 

Fresh to hobby example. No restoration and not cleaned. All original straight from the midwest:).

Oooooooooooooo!

Back from MLB signing. 3 Fresh Trouts...

C'mon Michael...

This thread is reserved for high quality acquisitions. Please try to show us something decent next time. :rolleyes:


J E A L O U S !

Wow...Thats one of the most impressive pickups I’ve ever seen here. Stunning, what’s the backstory?

What is that?

[QUOTE=ruth-gehrig;2043874]Fresh to hobby example. No restoration and not cleaned. All original straight from the midwest:).[/
WOW...Just WOW!!!

Like everyone else said....WOW! Congrats!

Mike, it does not get better than that! Congrats

McManus
 

Bought Frank McManus photo from Rhys Yeakley. He played 4 games in 1904 for NYAL. After release played for Buffalo in 1905. The photo I have was apparently used as part of a 1905 Esatern League collage photo(see second row middle right). He was a raging drunk and was murdered in Syracuse in 1923.

Thanks guys and sorry to disappoint you Mark;)

The backstory to the piece is just as amazing as the piece itself! Descendants enter a room that hasnt been accessed in at least 20 years to find exactly what the attached pic shows. Looks like literal mountain of junk piled to the ceiling! Water damaged walls and ceiling. In the second photo you can see the sign being "unearthed" against a back wall:eek::eek::eek: Once everything had been removed from the room it was found that the floor had rotted to dirt over the years!!
Amazing that it survived
Amazing that it was found
Anyone who doesnt believe there is still good stuff out there yet to be discovered, believe it:)

Hell, I just figured out you’re the Mike Trotnic, friend of Mike and Frank. You have some amazing stuff!

I don't think so. He' died.


https://www.facebook.com/tulsafleama...3304451980041/

bf104
 

Hank, It is called a bf104. I think they are listed in the Standard Catalog. Origin unknown. Maybe 25 in the check list. Late 30s. Cloth, Very scarce but fun to collect.

That was his father

Oh sorry, I did not know that.

Very sorry.

Finally was able to buy a “holy grail” piece, I had been eyeing for years. A 1930’s quilt made from the basketball jerseys of two brothers. They lived in Steubenville, Ohio with the last name Masserley. The quilt is about 6 feet long and five feet wide. I know NOTHING about quilting but have always wanted a vintage jerseys quilt. Came with some photos, one or two with the boys wearing the jerseys. I just dig Americana folk art. Something pure about it. Thanks for viewing.

My jaw may have hit the floor. Congrats!

He definitely left me the collecting gene:D

Great stuff, guys. I particularly love the Federal League Passes.

First I've ever seen, I believe, and incredibly cool. Any idea as to method of distribution? Whoever designed those had definitely seen a B-18!

I'm a big fan of the 1938-40 Reds, and I just couldn't pass this up.

Attachment 431169

Jim "The Milkman*" Turner won 14 games with a nice 2.89 ERA for the World Champion 1940 Reds, and later went on to be a pitching coach for ten pennant-winning clubs, including the 1961 Reds.

The photo is crystal-clear and the vintage fountain pen signature is real nice – but the reason I couldn't pass it up was the inscription: "To Joe the Great Magician"

*He was called "The Milkman" because he was – you guessed it – a milkman in the off season.

At last
 

My Spline collection is complete!

Nice, what exactly is a Spline bat? The advertisement makes it look like they have cuts in the bat.

I wasn't familiar with them, either. Great theme for collecting bats! Show more of them, if you don't mind---especially the "splines."

By the way, I looked up Spline Bat, and Keyman's Collectibles has the following:

http://http://keymancollectibles.com...esplinebat.htm

The Keyman's site has a habit of providing lots of information in a very concise and clear manner.

That is a nice explanation on the Keyman site. Looks like Sean has all 4 different known versions. http://keymancollectibles.com/gameus...esplinebat.htm

Here you go...

I technically don't have all the versions. The Mantle one, for example, is the earlier model, missing the (R) logo in the brand above the "Co", which would appear in 1964.
So I am still missing the post '64 Mantle, and the pre-'64 others. Additionally, some of the spline bats have been found with the word "Powerized" instead of "Spline".
And, finally, the little brochure in the frame only lists Mantle, Robinson, and Mathews as being available for colleges to order, so I am not sure what that means for my Berra '64 model. The brochure is selling them to teams other than MLB/Minor Leagues for the first time at that point (dated November 1963, for limited sale to colleges in 1964). So, if you have an earlier one, like the Mantle, it was almost certainly either in the MLB spring training or some minor leagues. I have read that they made it into real games, but I have seen ZERO proof of that, and Keyman points out that they might be illegal anyway.
But, I think I am close enough.

As you can see from the pictures (especially Berra), the splines did not work very well. But what is interesting is that they worked well enough for LS to bring them to the public for sale, which tells me that someone in the MLB must have liked them?
Anyway, a pretty rare, and relatively affordable bat of some serious players. And hey, you never know, maybe Mantle took a few swings, said "this sucks", and chucked it. The knob on Berra looks like "BB"; so maybe the bat boy used it???

Ok, I lied. Now that I wrote all of that, it is not close enough. Now I want all the versions. :D

And, I have no idea why it made my picture upside down.