Matt Holliday Pro Beech Bats

[G1X]

I am hoping that someone can shed some light on the two Matt Holliday bats shown in the below photos. I obtained these bats from the Rockies about a year ago. Both bats have Holliday's number on the ends and appear to show rack marks and ball markings although the ball marks are indentations only as no blue or green color markings can be seen. Being a very small-time bat collector, this is the first Pro Beech bats that I have ever seen.

Any information about Pro Beech bats will be much appreciated.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange

[Birdbats]

Mark,

Congratulations... you have two rookie bats. H&B marked their bats like that in early 2004. About mid-season, they started using the B9 sticker on beech bats (as they did with the M9 sticker on maple bats). Don't see many beech bats. I own just one, a Mike Matheny from early 2004.

[brianborsch]

Those are some weet looking bats. Any chance you would be willing to part with one or both? Let me know: brianborsch@yahoo.com

[BMH]

We started testing Beech in 2003. It came from Europe and had great properties for making baseball bats. We made a few hundred in 2004 and 2005. Samples were sent out to many of the top players using our bats at the time. The problem was all the Pro's wanted Maple, not Beech. Apparently when hitting a ball the bat makes more of a "thud" noise than a "crack". Our supplier also kept trying to up the price and quantity of billets he wanted us to buy so we killed the project. Every once in a while a player will request it and we still have close to 3000 pieces so if we have the correct weights we will still make Beach bats.

Matt Holliday ordered it a couple of times, no finish R227's. I have one of his in my own collection, cracked mid barrel through the handle. I love the design of the R227.

[brianborsch]

Are both of your Holliday Beech bats uncracked? If so, and you are willing to sell let me know. I have been looking for a good uncracked Holliday gamer for years! And these are from his rookie year! brianborsch@yahoo.com

[G1X]

BMH and Birdbats - Thanks so much for the great information!

Brian - I am a huge Holliday fan and not looking to move these bats.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange

[brianborsch]

Hey no problem. I had to check. I have always liked him and wouldn't mind having a bat like that.

[chakes89]

I have an Adam Dunn game used cracked Model B345 Beech bat.

I didn't know that they were rare.

Thanks for the info