"(2) Do we know how these bats typically survived to modern times? For example, other than Ruth giving a bat away to a friend or fan, how did the public typically get these bats? Do most of them come from the player's estate? Or did some people just find a bunch of bats at the bat company? For example, many old photos are found when the archives of newspapers go on sale. Did something happen for bats in a similar way? e.g., at the end of every year, the Yankees would sell/give away old bats/memorabilia to the public."
A good number of bats were saved by family, friends, and fans. That is how I got my first old bats. But the big event was in the early 1990's, when Hillerich and Bradsby sold their inventory of game used bats. Over the years, these bats had been sent to them by players for use as models for future bats. There were, if I recall, about 8000 bats in that sale, and about 10% were from hall of fame players. The marks placed by the factory on one of these bats is considered evidence that this player used the bat in games. Not many of these side written bats exist for any particular player.
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