Eddie Mathews 1966 H&B Spline bat

[Mark17]

On ebay there is a 1966 Mathews Spline bat. Is it just camera glare, or is the piece of the barrel with Mathews' name attached with white glue? There seems to be a white outline that encircles his name.

It comes with a LOA from GameUsedBat.com... on their website, is an $8600 Willie Mays D2 bat. According to GUU, Mays never ordered that model, and it isn't likely a pro stock since it's a block-letter and Mays didn't have a contract with H&B.

Thoughts?

[suicide_squeeze]

My thoughts.....


If you are going to post here, asking questions about something that interests you for whatever reason, and it requires others here to look at it......at least make the effort to post a link to it.

It's kind of a statement in itself based on the responses you have received......if you're going to make us work hard to search out what you are questioning......you're not going to get a whole lot of help.

Just a friendly suggestion, take care.

[FastLane80]

In other words, please copy and paste a link next time :D Since I was curious about this bat too and it's about to end, I'll help out. Don't worry, you're not the first to ask a question without a link ;)

http://cgi.ebay.com/Eddie-Mathews-1966-H-B-Louisville-Slugger-Game-Used-Bat_W0QQitemZ330343641976QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_Def aultDomain_0?hash=item4cea03f378&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A4|39%3A1|72%3A1205|293%3A1| 294%3A200

[gameusedbat.com]

Hello,

The Mathews bat is a Spring Training test bat that H&B made for select players in 1966 and nixed the idea. The bats have 3 splines in the back of the barrel. This barrel is absolutely not glued in any sort of way. It ends on eBay tonight as part of the CharityBats.com (http://www.charitybats.com) auction at about 10 PM EST.

As per the D2 Mays bat on our site, it was ordered April 5th, 1968. John Taube and I both verified this order. In the book and on this site as a result, this D2 bat was an oversight recorded as an S2 on accident. Hopefully we can get the online version at GUU to reflect this D2 order.

John and I spoke on the phone earlier today to confirm. Also, 34 has been written on the knob in pencil by the factory penmanship for Mays on this 35" bat. This Willie Mays game used bat is guaranteed to pass Mears & PSA/DNA/John Taube as with all of our game used items.

Mr. Specht if you need to reach me about this bat feel free to email me at info@gameusedbat.com or call John Taube directly. Also, Mike if you could clarify this on the post I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Ryan
GameUsedBat.com (http://www.gameusedbat.com)

[MSpecht]

Hi Ryan-- Here is the response I gave a couple of people who asked about this bat earlier via email. Hopefully this clears it up a bit. Good Luck in the auction. Mike

" I see the order John is speaking of--- I originally read the second April 5, 1968 order as S2, and when the Mays chart for Vince's most recent book was being compiled, it was read as S2 also. Now, based on the fact that the bat has surfaced, John is probably right, and if I was looking at the order as a stand alone order, or there were a couple of other D2 orders anywhere else on his charts, I would have initially looked at it as more of a possibility. But looking at it in totality with Mays' career, and looking just at the entries on this page alone (see 6/21/67 and 5/29/69, among others) I initially interpreted it as S2. However, the two orders on 4/5/68 are both for 35 inch bats, and the first is for 12 bats with weight as "34 / 34 1 /2" and the second order as 34. Given that, is it likely that the second order is for a different model than the first order? Logic would seem to think so. Otherwise the first order could have been written for 24 bats. From the subject bat e know that a bat (or 12) was produced during that label period with D2 on the knob and MAYS on the barrel... did they come from this order, whether the order was actually D2 or mis-read as D2 ? Very Probably. Did Mays ever actually use it ? Who knows? I believe that John likely determined some Mays GU characteristics existed on the bat as well, as the single order discussed above, so he likely did, but he never ordered them again so he must not have liked them too much... Overall, pretty interesting. Good Luck"

[Mark17]

Thanks Mike, that's great work!

With the factory pencil 34 on the knob, it does look like a good match to that shipping entry.