December Pick Ups

[jerseygary]

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

IMG_0752.jpg

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.

[JoeDfan]

My Spline collection is complete!

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by JoeDfan

My Spline collection is complete!

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

[Mark]

Originally Posted by JoeDfan

My Spline collection is complete!

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.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Mark

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

[JoeDfan]

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.

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

[JoeDfan]

Originally Posted by Mark

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.

I agree. That web site is pretty awesome, especially when I am researching some obscure brand.

[Mark]

thanks. it's all very interesting.

[JLange]

Happy to add three new items to my Cleveland Baseball Magazines Collection

-1910 Apr 23 Sporting Life Magazine, with Frederick "Cy" Falkenberg cover

-1957 Apr 4 Pleybol (Mexico) Magazine, with Al Rosen cover

-2020 Nov/Dec Baseball Digest, with reigning CYA winner Shane Bieber cover

Always looking for more!