louisville slugger miniature replica bats--vintage or not??

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

Same deal on the rack..............I made it. I just took 1x4's and drilled holes for pegs and then took a 1x8 or so and made a 'header' for it and then actually took some aluminum sheeting and cripmed and cut it for the top. Not really vintage but it works great for display. The other one I have is just a simple 1x4 rectangle that I made and drilled the holes at a slight angle and I just put it up on the wall like a frame. It works really well too. I'm not the consummate woodworker but can fumble around enough to get something done. On the rack, I just spraypainted it black, so it's functional although not pretty. Will try to shoot a couple more photos of the 'whole thing' for you so you can get a better feel for it.

As for the bats, I have always loved the bats but, like ALL of my collecting, I get into something for a few years and then I get out of it. Not sure it always works out the best, but that's my modus operandi. I had a lot of bats at one time, many many more of the 14" 1920's bats and Brown/Gold 1930's/1940's/1950's bats. I just, over time, sold a lot off at shows and via ebay. They are somewhat difficult to really display nicely. I've dealt with Byron McCorkle in the past and he's the undisputed heavyweight champion of mini bats I think. ID is batsbyron on ebay and if he doesn't have it, it might not have been made......he literally has (or had I guess) thousands of them.

I don't actively search them out but when I see something that pops up somehow on the radar, I try to pursue at a good price. I still have a dozen or so 14" mini's and some of the tougher ones. The blue Spalding Frisch is a really nice bat and very difficult to get ahold of. I recently sold a 22" Sisler that was a salesman's sample bat as it was a scale version of the 1915 or so bone rubbed bat with a cork handle. Hadn't seen one of those before.

Have a couple of friends that collect mini's pretty heavily, so they pick up some from time to time. Have probably 50-60 that I may pull out and sell, so keep an eye out on the BST threads. Been trying to pare down the collection a little...............