Great post! A project of mine is exploring the history of the baseball bat and its evolution. I collect mainly 19th century odd ball bats, home made, with unusual knobs, rings, or markings or shapes. I have around 90 bats with around half being 19th century. Here are a few examples. Also, I have a question maybe someone here can answer. I have two town ball bats, one with both sides flat and the other oval shaped. Both have the letters PPR stamped into them. I'm wondering if this is a manufacturer's stamp. It appears to be as the letters seem to be machine stamped. Anybody have an idea about this stamping? Anyway, here's a few pics of the types of bats I collect.John