How do you research a bat? (Photos added)

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Posted By: Jason L

Hi,
This is generally not my thing, and a quick search through the posts didn't seem to yield the info, so I hope it's ok to ask...

How do you research a bat? origin, year of mfr, etc?

I recently acquired what I believe to be an old mini bat (I will post pics tonight), with a brand label on it and a facsimile signature. I want to find out the year of mfr and how it was distributed (game souvenir, etc)...

any ideas or help welcome!
Thanks!

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

There is a Mastro Bat Guide that was put out by Dave Bushing a few years back and I think it's available through Mastro still. It contains a dating guide for bat labels. I don't think it will tell you much for minibats though because I doubt they changed the label for their minis at the same time they did for their regular bats. But I bet when you post your pics you will get an answer pretty quickly as there are mini-bat collectors that frequent this forum.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I'm no bat expert, but know for mainstream bats (H & B) you can date them to an time period by the brandings. The companies changed their brand names and styles over the years. As mentioned, there's a MastroNet guide to bats.

All I know about gloves and other equipment is that anything by Drayper-Maynard and Goldsmith is old for similar name changing reasons. After various takeovers and name changes those two companies became part of the same company today named MacGregor.

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Posted By: Jason L

Okay, here are photos of the mini bat that I would like to learn more about...

I tried and these are the best pics I could take...it is about as long as the keyboard of my PC, and has no stampings or marking on either end.

facsimile signature is Lee Handley

Bat label reads:
Louisville Slugger
40
Hillerich & Bradsby Co.
TradeMark
Lousiville, KY.

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Posted By: John Harrell

Jason,

Your mini bat is a Louisville Slugger from the late 30's more than likely. Lee Handley played from 1936 to 1947 and the LS 40 designation disappeared in the 1940's. The LS 40 regular sized bats were a slightly lower quality bat than the LS 125 models.

Some info on bats you can get by going to such places as the Louisville Slugger museum web site. Some you can get from books such as the one mentioned. Dave Bushing also put out some pocket-sized price guides for Louisville Slugger and Spalding models. Some info you can get from the web by looking up old sporting goods companies and reading their histories. Another source is old baseball guides put out by sporting goods manufacturers such as Spalding, Reach, Goldsmith, Hanna, and more. Some you just get looking at and handling old bats. There are more sources but these will give you some idea of where to look.

John