Could this be Hughie Jennings Game Used Bat?

[Mark]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

i checked out their site...they refer people to hunt auctions for authentication. I'd assume they have records that would tell jennings bat specs...I just don't know how to get this info????

There are very few records prior to 1920. The Malta book makes no reference to any Jennings bats, saying only that he didn't have an endorsement contract with them.

As I understand it, floods, fire, and the ravages of time have done away with most of, if not all of, H&B’s order/ shipping records prior to 1920.

[ullmandds]

Originally Posted by Mark

There are very few records prior to 1920. The Malta book makes no reference to any Jennings bats, saying only that he didn't have an endorsement contract with them.

interesting...

[ullmandds]

with hillerich and sons buying out pontiac turning you'd think there were specs for players bats that transferred with the sale? who knows?

[ullmandds]

Steve's response:


A MEARS auction states; "There are no supporting factory records to
document exact use of this brand by major league players, but we do know
that PTC did supply bats to the professional leagues.

Other examples of PTC bats have entered the market, with examples of
Frank Chance, additional Napoleon Lajoie, and minor league players.
During the September 30th, 2010 MEARS Auction, a 1905-16 era Curly Blount
stamped bat was offered with identical Indian with headdress center
brand. Additionally, his name, "JENNINGS" is stamped into the knob."

http://sports.mearsonlineauctions.co...-lot78550.aspx

I'm not sure if that's what I used for reference. I don't recall. I might
have read an article written by Dave Bushing. Either way it is a
professional bat (Jennings on the knob) but without strong provenance or
factory records it cannot be attributed to Hughie Jennings.

Here is an auction for a 1900-12 Willie Keeler Pontiac Turning Company
Professional Model Bat.>
https://goldinauctions.com/1900_12_W...-LOT36465.aspx

I just now referenced it to see if MEARS added any information on Pontiac
Professional model bats and I noticed that they are using my website as
reference in their letters of evaluation. LOL ....

If you like send me some nice pictures and I'll add it to the website for
reference. -Steven

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[ullmandds]

The bat auctioned in mears was described as 33" weighing 41 oz. Also under the pontiac turning logo the #4 is depicted. On Steve's site it is clearly shown in the 1910 ordering options that a #4 bat corresponds to a non professional bat. So to me this was more a store model bat that could have been purchased by anybody .

My bat is 33 3/4" long and weighs 38.1 oz...also there is no # under the pontiac turning logo... which more accurately jives with a professional model bad as per shown in the literature on the site .

my quest will continue to confirm/deny that this is a hughie jennings game used bat!

[Mark]

This is great information! There seems to be a consensus that a Pontiac bat with the name on the knob is considered a pro-model bat. As Steve indicates, the question is whether Jennings ever had it in his hands. I think the difficulty is that Pontiac may have made this model of bat for Jennings --- and yet they may also have sold their Jennings pro-model bats to other players. Did THE Hughie Jennings use this particular pro-model Jennings in a game? If there were order/shipping records from the dead ball era, then you could use them to see if this is a match with old Hughie Jennings bat orders---but there aren't any. And even if you had the factory records, you'd still want to look for photos of Jennings with a bat to find tape patterns or other characteristics associated with him. Are there there any existing photos with him holding a bat? Let us know!