Determining authenticity of Non-star player/common player bats
 

I've been debating starting up with a side project of collecting vintage Pittsburgh Pirate game used bats, mainly staying away from the stars and HOFers with this aspect of my collection and focusing on gamers from Non-star players.

So my question then is how do you make an informed decision on these types of bats since for the most part shipping records, order records or any other information for many of these players will never have been researched by anyone.

Take for example Charlie Sands who played 28 games for the 1971 Pirates, spent most of the 1971 and 1972 season on the Pirates roster, and played in only 93 total games over a 6 year MLB career.

Now my initial thought was if I find a Charlie Sands LS bat with labels matching his time in the majors and/or with the pirates, and the bat shows signs of game use such as ball marks, tar, cleat marks, that I would ok assuming that it’s a genuine Sands gamer knowing that the chances of LS releasing any additional Charlie Sands bats to anyone else or any other team is slim to none.

Are my assumptions accurate? Does anyone have any other thoughts?

With the advent of metal bats the number of players bat makers signed on to make store models dropped alot.

The yearly list of store model endorser can be found on line

Hi Mark,

Generally I think you're correct. For players that weren't household names as long as the bat has been deemed to be a professional model from the era during which that player played you can be relatively certain that the bat was made for them to use.

Outside of that, determining whether or not a particular player used a certain bat can be a bit more difficult. For super rare players just having a bat with that players name on it can be enough for some collectors.

I did a quick search to find a list of yearly endorsers but came up empty, if you have a link you could provide it would be greatly appreciated.

Mark, great question. I collect red sox game used bats and am trying to get a bat from each guy who played for them, non pitcher, from 1960 to the present.

When I first started, over 20 years ago, I had aspirations to get bats only from the time when the players played for the sox with correct knob numbering. What I learned is that for pre 1980 common bats there is real scarcity and you might never see another bat of the player if you let that imperfect one go. However, you can rest assured that if it is a pro model it was made for your guy. Further, many of the bats are likely minor league bats, that is the only way I can explain finding the bats of many cup of coffee players, but it makes matching knob numbers a real challenge.

I have found collecting common bats very rewarding, I am always hunting, frequently finding and the price is usually very reasonable.

Good luck

Soxbats