Bat Experts Help - Griffey bat

[kingjammy24]

http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/Auction_Item.asp?Auction_ID=9281

griffey's first year in the majors was 1989. in 1990, LVS had no text below the player name on the barrel. in 1991, they began putting the team name. the bat is said to be authenticated by bushing/SCDA and to be from 1986-1989. i assume that's because it has "louisville slugger" under the player name. given all of these factors, this bat could only be from 1989 then.

brian hillerich told me that griffey's "first autograph [signature model] order from us came to him in April of 1991." furthermore, here's a shot, from mearsonline.com, showing griffey in what must be 1989 using a block letter model:

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/1495/sillye.jpg

this jives with the fact that brian told me griffey's first signature model came in 1991 which means he must've been using block letter models in 1990 and 1989.

all of that said, what is the AMI bat then? it's a signature model on a 1986-89 style bat? that doesn't jive with the facts presented above.

rudy.

[sportscentury]

http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/Auction_Item.asp?Auction_ID=9281

griffey's first year in the majors was 1989. in 1990, LVS had no text below the player name on the barrel. in 1991, they began putting the team name. the bat is said to be authenticated by bushing/SCDA and to be from 1986-1989. i assume that's because it has "louisville slugger" under the player name. given all of these factors, this bat could only be from 1989 then.

brian hillerich told me that griffey's "first autograph [signature model] order from us came to him in April of 1991." furthermore, here's a shot, from mearsonline.com, showing griffey in what must be 1989 using a block letter model:

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/1495/sillye.jpg

this jives with the fact that brian told me griffey's first signature model came in 1991 which means he must've been using block letter models in 1990 and 1989.

all of that said, what is the AMI bat then? it's a signature model on a 1986-89 style bat? that doesn't jive with the facts presented above.

rudy.

It's a promotional model bat. L.S. produced some of these in the mid-to-late 1990s. They do not have a line underneath the 125. I doubt Griffey ever used these, but they certainly were not used by Griffey pre-1990. Also, I've seen and owned many early Griffey bats and have never seen 24 painted on the knob sloppily with white out.

Despite listing the bat as one of Griffey's 1986-1989 game used bats, the geniuses at AMI go on to state "This Louisville Slugger, Model C271, was used by Junior during a time in his career when he was well on his way to the 500 Home run plateau." He was well on his way to the 500 HR mark during his minor league and rookie year days? Cough.

Before folks jump on Bushing, we should see the letter. For all we know, this is just another one of AMI's empty promises of accompanying documentation (or, alternatively, the letter exists but states something completely different than what is listed). If Bushing did authenticate this as a Griffey Jr. game used 1986-1989 bat, he very clearly made a mistake.

.

[kingjammy24]

It's a promotional model bat. L.S. produced some of these in the mid-to-late 1990s. They do not have a line underneath the 125.

a promo model without the 125 underlined? that's not good. what other players had non-underlined promo models?

rudy.

[sportscentury]

a promo model without the 125 underlined? that's not good. what other players had non-underlined promo models?

rudy.

I don't know. In this Griffey case, it's not particularly problematic because the combination of barrel markings tell you that the bat is not a gamer. The 125-underlined promo bats may have been produced after these Griffeys (Brian may want to chime in here). I actually think it was Bushing who told me about these Griffeys several years ago (which is partly why I question the Bushing/SCD Authentic LOA listing).

.

[nealdevelopment@yahoo.com]

Tony Gwynn was a big "promo" bat guy. Gotta watch his stuff.