Determining authenticity of Non-star player/common player bats

[markf31]

I've been debating starting up with a side project of collecting vintage Pittsburgh Pirate game used bats, mainly staying away from the stars and HOFers with this aspect of my collection and focusing on gamers from Non-star players.

So my question then is how do you make an informed decision on these types of bats since for the most part shipping records, order records or any other information for many of these players will never have been researched by anyone.

Take for example Charlie Sands who played 28 games for the 1971 Pirates, spent most of the 1971 and 1972 season on the Pirates roster, and played in only 93 total games over a 6 year MLB career.

Now my initial thought was if I find a Charlie Sands LS bat with labels matching his time in the majors and/or with the pirates, and the bat shows signs of game use such as ball marks, tar, cleat marks, that I would ok assuming that it’s a genuine Sands gamer knowing that the chances of LS releasing any additional Charlie Sands bats to anyone else or any other team is slim to none.

Are my assumptions accurate? Does anyone have any other thoughts?

[Jags Fan Dan]

I've been debating starting up with a side project of collecting vintage Pittsburgh Pirate game used bats, mainly staying away from the stars and HOFers with this aspect of my collection and focusing on gamers from Non-star players.

So my question then is how do you make an informed decision on these types of bats since for the most part shipping records, order records or any other information for many of these players will never have been researched by anyone.

Take for example Charlie Sands who played 28 games for the 1971 Pirates, spent most of the 1971 and 1972 season on the Pirates roster, and played in only 93 total games over a 6 year MLB career.

Now my initial thought was if I find a Charlie Sands LS bat with labels matching his time in the majors and/or with the pirates, and the bat shows signs of game use such as ball marks, tar, cleat marks, that I would ok assuming that it’s a genuine Sands gamer knowing that the chances of LS releasing any additional Charlie Sands bats to anyone else or any other team is slim to none.

Are my assumptions accurate? Does anyone have any other thoughts?
I am not an expert on this by any stretch, but I agree with and follow the same logic that you suggest. Unless a bat is photo matched, no one can say with 100% certainty that the bat was used by the player that it was designated for. All you can do is add up the factors you mentioned and make an educated assumption.

[joelsabi]

Take for example Charlie Sands who played 28 games for the 1971 Pirates, spent most of the 1971 and 1972 season on the Pirates roster, and played in only 93 total games over a 6 year MLB career.

Now my initial thought was if I find a Charlie Sands LS bat with labels matching his time in the majors and/or with the pirates, and the bat shows signs of game use such as ball marks, tar, cleat marks, that I would ok assuming that it’s a genuine Sands gamer knowing that the chances of LS releasing any additional Charlie Sands bats to anyone else or any other team is slim to none.

Are my assumptions accurate? Does anyone have any other thoughts?


For this example, there the labeling period that ends in 1972 so there is more certainty that is was from his Pirates days. That's not always the case so sometime there is less certainty.

http://webpages.charter.net/birdbats/Birdbats/Bat%20ID/LS%201950-1979.htm

I am pretty sure there are more bat collectors that can tell you first hand how they choose a bat but I think you are on the right track. Know the time period the player played for that team and the period of the bat label and see the percentage of overlap. Sometime the player plays for two or three teams during a batting label period would have less certainty than your bat but sometimes bat preference (ie. model, weight of bat) change over time period so also check with Brian (BMH) for LVS bat records. Good Luck.

[Klattsy]

Mark (cool name btw!),

I used to be worried about the bats in my collection same as you. I collect "common" players and it is very rare that the bats can be bought with MLB holos or team letters (I have none). What I have been lucky to do with maybe 1/3 of my bats is contact the player and ask them if they are familiar with the design, and if they ever let other players use them.

My concerns are not that the bat has been forged, but that it was issued to my guy but then the majority of use was by another player (rare, but happens - normally other players would prefer to use a "stars" bat if not their own) or even worse, given to a kid and he used it in the backyard adding use or breaking.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) I have let most of my paranoia slip and will buy pretty much any bat that is labelled with my players name (at the end of the day he more than likely had it for a while anyway). I would not buy a team bat though.

Not sure if that helps or confuses you more!