Quote:
Originally Posted by Jobu
Can you offer a bit more info on what the Vince Malta system is and how there can be dating differences?
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Long-time collector Vince Malta examined thousands of game used bats, and he devised a method for classifying when they were made. He provides a number of clues for determining, more or less precisely, which year or years a Louisville Slugger bat could have been manufactured. His methods are explained in his now standard book
A Complete Reference to Louisville Slugger Professional Bats.. The book is indispensible because it also contains records of the bats that were ordered from Hillerich and Bradsby by hall of fame players. Records are pretty much non-existent before 1920, but by the early-mid 20's, there are records that tell us about the weight, length, and style of bats each HoF player actually ordered from LS.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Refer.../dp/0979137004
How can experts differ about the dates of manufacture?
As I understand it, Malta studied when players returned certain bat models to the factory to be duplicated (or modified slightly) by H&B, and he dates the manufacture of the bat to the year it was returned to the factory. At MEARS, they hypothesize that a given bat model could have been used for a year or more before examples started being returned to the factory for duplictation/ modification. I'm sure others know more about it than I do.