PBOR.'s - Dave Bushing's magic wand!

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Posted By: Robert Plancich

PBOR is an acronym used to describe the Hillerich & Bradsby/Louisville Slugger Professional Bat Order Records. According to Global Authentication Inc., MastroNet and SCD Authentic - "A certificate of authenticity from Dave Bushing is a 'sin qua non' for anyone seeking to buy a serious bat. He has benn selected as the repository of the Louisville Slugger archives and has all the records for every bat ever made for any player of note.This information is not otherwise available."

First of all, the H&B PBOR's are exactly what the term implies - they are simply order records. Anyone who has ever played and/or watched the game of baseball knows that players use different bats and other players bats all the time. Dave Bushing and his LOA's/COA's usually always state that the bat matches all "factory records" and that this mere fact now, without question and/or doubt, places the resepective bat in the player's hands and hence it is an authentic game-used bat! This couldn't be further from the truth. Just beacause a player orders a particular model bat doesn't necessarily mean that the player used the bat!

Back in 1997 you used to be able to call H&B directly and they would tell you is a particular model bat of their's matched the factory records. I believe that practice has been stopped and you are referred to Dave Bushing for these questions. These PBOR's are simply the first step in the process of authenticating a professional model game-used bat, there are many more steps that need to be addressed before you can place the bat in the player's hands.

The following link is to an article written about a fake Ichiro bat that MastroNet tried to sell and Dave Bushing & Dan Knoll authenticated as the first bat he ever used in MLB. What's even more frightening than this bat being authenticated was the story that they completely fabricated in order to give this bat its authentic status. I don't know if Ichiro ever ordered a Louisville Slugger bat because he is the poster child" for Mizuno, it's is more likely that the bat manufacturer made the bat and sent him some samples hoping that Ichiro would like their model and then start using it in the game. The only reason that this bat was eventually pulled from the auction was because some collector had a video tape from Ichiro's first game showing that he never used a Louisville Slugger bat.Fake Ichiro game-used bat