Louisville Slugger Vault Find

[stkmtimo]

Hi everyone,
Being that I mostly collect moden game worn/used equipment, can someone please tell me exactly what happened when the Louisville Slugger vault was "found" in the 1980s? I don't know the exact details and would appreciate any information on the topic. I do have some older game used bats but and was wondering the exact events leading up to the storied vault find.

Thanks,
Tim

[MSpecht]

Hi Tim--

I believe this is the situation you are referring to, as recounted by old-time bat guy Mike Montbriand in 1992, and published (in portion) in his GONE BATS series that ran in Sports Collector's Digest:

"Earlier in the year, two New york businessmen, Art Jaffe (Left Field Collectibles) and Pete Siegel (PBS Realty) purchased at least 8,000 old baseball bats for resale. These bats were mostly Hillerich & Bradsby Co. brand bats from the early 1900's to 1930's. Mixed in were Spalding, Hanna Batright, A.J. Reach, and maybe a few other brands.

To put it mildly, there has been a virtual feeding frenzy since March by the bat collectors and dealers who have participated in the distribution of this large quantity of bats into the hobby. At first, some bat collectors expressed concerms that the bat market would be over-saturated with so many old bats at one time, thus depressing values of in existing collections and the bat market as a whole for the foreseeable future. Neither occurred. In fact, these old bats offered by Jaffe and Siegel have increased the demand for quality older bats.

It is my understanding that the vast majority of these bats, maybe 90 percent, have no labeling on the barrel end, or have no labeling at all, or are common players bats. The game-used bats of Hall of Famers and star players from this 8.000 bat cache probably number about 800. That is insufficient to satisfy the appetite of the growing ranks of bat collectors seeking vintage Hall of Fame material...

My (Montbriand's) involvement with this smaller group of 800 older bats has been in the authentication process. I have authenticated a number for various dealers or have assisted in their authentication.....

Bats of Shoeless Joe Jackson, Lou Gehrig, Speaker, Hornsby, Eddie Collins, Greenberg, Grover C. Alexander, Bob Feller, Bill Terry, Earle B. Combs, Ty Cobb, Red Ruffing, etc., etc. would show up in a continuous flow at my door.....

And, once these 800 or so bats are gone -- sold, squirreled away in collections -- that's it. There are no more. Unless a major bat collector sells his or her collection, I doubt there will ever surface another large group of 1920's Hall of Fame game used players bats...."

The behind-the- scenes story as recounted by Art Jaffe (Left Field Collectibles) and Pete Siegel (Gotta Have It Collectibles) would be fascinating reading, complete with clandestine trips to unknown locations and hiring kids to scrape off decades of crusty deposits on many of the 8,000 bats, not knowing what might surface at any given time.

Mike Jackitout7@aol.com

[sportscentury]

Mike,

Thanks for posting this. The GONE BATS series was pretty good - I still have some of the articles saved in one of my files. I miss it. Michael Montbriand is no longer involved in the hobby, correct? I always found him to be a very knowledgeable person when it came to bats.

Your BATS book along with the GONE BATS series were two of the only places for a long time that a person could find information about game used pro bats. Game Used Universe is a far cry from the old days, eh? - all the information you need at the click of a computer key or two!

It would be great if Art Jaffe would provide an exclusive for GUU on the behind the scenes efforts and happenings of that historic purchase.

Reid

[stkmtimo]

Thanks a million, Mike! That really explains what happened and I too would love to hear the behind the scenes stories. How cool.

Tim