KC A's Charlie Finley Custom Green Bat
 

Looking for a person who can help me find information out about a Louisville Slugger bat custom made with Charlie Finley's and the Kansas City Athletics name on it. This guy who showed it to me received from Finley himself when he was a kid growing up in Chicago.

A green bat? You sure it's not a giveaway?

I'm not a bat expert but player endorsed A's Green bats (Maris included) pop up from time to time and are highly sought after. Maybe a bat collector can chime in about their origin.

I saw the bat myself and I know it is a custom bat made for Charlie Finley with his name on it. It also has the Kansas City Athletics name on the bat. The bat was given to him by Finley himself.

So it was not one of these?

http://www.crownsportsauction.com/lo...ba-lot488.aspx

A lot of 3

Ah, I see. When you hear green KC bats, I automatically think of the giveaways.

The bats in the listed auction I do not know anything about unfortunately.

I bought one of the Little league green KC Athletic bats from a Sporting Good store in Kansas City late 60s. Was not a giveaway. I cant remember the player however.

Don't know about Kansas City but when the A's were in Oakland they did have the green bats on "bat days". You got a random bat with the players Louisville Slugger autograph brand.

I vaugely remember that there were Finley bats, but being that 40 years have passed can't be 100% sure. Over time I've had ones of Campy, Bando, Jackson, Epstein, Rudi, Green, and Monday.

However all the bat day bats were 29"-32" Little League styles so the 35 incher in the auction listing may well have been a special bat made for Charlie O. I do have an original Louisville metal brand for Snoopy cartoonist Charles Schulz so perhaps LS did make special bats for other than players from time to time.

I believe the full size Finley bats were given to season ticket holders.
The smaller green bats were given on bat day.

LOL! All 10 of them!

A buddy of mine told me this story of the A's early years in Oakland...he drove to the Coliseum and asked the guy at the ticket window if he could see the ticket sales manager.

The guy asked him, "What for?"

"I want to buy season tickets," at which point the guy shut down the sales windows, went to the door and invited the buyer in.

"Come with me, he said."

The proceeded to walk into the stadium and down to the section behind the A's dugout.

"The first row is for Clorox (one of the A's early sponsors), anything else is all yours..."

Funny! :)

Green Bats
 

Great story :). I have a few things from the KC A's but can't remember any green bats or seeing any.

Here's a couple of closeups of my 35 inch model. I've had it for years, and until this thread had never seen another one. It's really pretty cool looking in person.

Greg

That labeling dates it to approximately 1964

From what I understand , these bats were made exclusively for Charley O to give to people he liked. I am told he was very stingy with them. Some are numbered.