Simmons Bat

[eastonfalcon19]

Just picked up a late 20s early 30s Al Simmons bat. Does anybody have any Al Simmons Gamers that they can post? Did he use tape? I seen a few photos of Simmons holding a bat/bats with a tape application on them. I also know that he used some kind pine tar on his bats. This bat measures 35" and weighs around 37 ounces. Simmons used to swing monster bats at 37-38.5 inches in length. So if anybody has any Simmons gamers or photos of Simmons swinging a bat I would love to see them. Thank you all. Much appreciated.

[sayhey24]

Hi Ron,

I have a side written Simmons that I will post later. My recollection is that it does not have any tape or tape marks.
Your bat looks great!

Greg

[Mark]

The knob looks interesting. There may be several signs that it is a pro-model bat, but of course you are looking for further links to Simmons himself. Did Simmons favor a wide grain bat like this one seems to have?

[eastonfalcon19]

Greg- Im looking forward to seeing your Simmons bat.

Greg- Not sure if he did or not. Hopefully we see some other Simmons bat. I've seen a few on the internet but can't really tell.

[sayhey24]

Here are a few photos of my Al Simmons side written gamer -- it is 38 inches long.
I also included a couple of photos of my Hanna Batrite Simmons, probably not a gamer -- it's 36 inches.

I'm sorry the photos aren't larger.

Greg

[yanks12025]

Originally Posted by Mark

The knob looks interesting. There may be several signs that it is a pro-model bat, but of course you are looking for further links to Simmons himself. Did Simmons favor a wide grain bat like this one seems to have?

Knob looks like it could have possibly been messed with. The wear pattern kinda looks alittle weird.

The center brand looks like the 1923-25 labeling period. I think he only ordered a 35 inch bat once during that time. And it was a Joe Jackson mode.

[perezfan]

There's no handle tape on the last 3 or 4 Simmons Bats that I've seen offered at auction as game-used.

Pine tar yes; but cannot recall seeing any tape or tape residue.

[Mark]

The picture of the center label is at a slight angle, so it isn't easy to say, but I think that the label is from 1925-1930. (the M in "Made in America" moved under the R in "Hillerich"). According to the Malta book, if I read it correctly, there isn't a record of any order for 35" bats during that period. There were, however, some orders in 1929 that don't specify the bat length.

[yanks12025]

Originally Posted by Mark

The picture of the center label is at a slight angle, so it isn't easy to say, but I think that the label is from 1925-1930. (the M in "Made in America" moved under the R in "Hillerich"). According to the Malta book, if I read it correctly, there isn't a record of any order for 35" bats during that period. There were, however, some orders in 1929 that don't specify the bat length.

Yep you're correct. I missed the M

[eastonfalcon19]

Thank you guys for the input. So going off of Malta's book...bats during the 20s had both the baselined 1 in "125" and non- baselined 1 in "125"? That was the one thing I was basing the date off of was the non baselined 1 on my bat. I just thought that all bats before 1928 had the baselined 1 until Brock mentioned 1923-25 time frame and saw that early 20s bats had non baselined 1 as well.

PS- Here is a photo of Simmons holding a bat with tape application.

[Mark]

Originally Posted by eastonfalcon19

Thank you guys for the input. So going off of Malta's book...bats during the 20s had both the baselined 1 in "125" and non- baselined 1 in "125"? That was the one thing I was basing the date off of was the non baselined 1 on my bat. I just thought that all bats before 1928 had the baselined 1 until Brock mentioned 1923-25 time frame and saw that early 20s bats had non baselined 1 as well.

PS- Here is a photo of Simmons holding a bat with tape application.

As I understood it, the baselined 1 appears on some labels from 1925 thru 1928, but there are also labels from that era that appear with the non-baselined |. Thus, the baselined 1 tells us that the bat is from that 4 year period, but the non-baselined version, by itself, doesn't put the bat in a specific year.