Michael Jordan 1994 "air" Jordan Bats

[hblakewolf]

BMH or any Forum reader-does anyone have any factory records, photos or evidence that Michael Jordan used natural P72 bats with MICHAEL "AIR" JORDAN on them in 1994 while playing for the Barrons?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Michael-Jordan-G...d=p3286.c0.m14

As an avid Jordan baseball collector, I'd enjoy learning about such a bat being used/ordered by Jordan.

Thanks.
Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@comcast.net

[bigtruck260]

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_f...ad.php?t=15584

[33bird]

Here's a getty's photo of a game used Jordan bat from Sarasota. Notice no AIR on bat.
Greg
biggamebird@yahoo.com

[BMH]

The picture above is how we made his game bats. If you'll notice on the picture above all the letters/words on the end brand are burn branded. If you look at the bat on the ebay listing you'll notice the name is different than the words, "GENUINE", "P72", "LOUISVILLE SLUGGER". This is because the name was engraved into the bat and then paint filled. We did not put his name on that bat. The reason I know this is we weren't paint filling bats back then on souvie items. We used a brown foil in our foil branders.

We sell models like the one above to many different companies. We leave the center line blank on the end brand to be filled in with what they want on the bat. The center brand doesn't have a line under the 125, but we didn't start doing that until recently.

[33bird]

You can definately tell the difference between those bats! Thanks Brian.
Greg

[schubert1970]

If you look at the link Dave attached to his response, the bat look the exact same to me or am I missing something? MEARS gave that an A10.

[33bird]

Look at the MICHAEL JORDAN name. Not the same at all. Even the LV guy got on here and said they didn't put his name on that bat. You can see the difference.
Greg

[schubert1970]

Why did the exact same bat get an A10 from MEARS and sell for over 2k. From that thread Dave provided I had a hard time understanding the "promo bat" thing. No one stated that they didn't put the name on the bat the last time this came up.

According to H & B factory records, the single bat produced for Jordan in 1989 was listed as "Baseball Promotions." .This same notation appears on the first 10 bats on Jordan's H & B records, from 9/13/89 through 12/6/93. Three H & B employes that worked in 'special brands' at the time (and are still with the company) only remember the black bats with silver foil, which first show up in the H & B records in 1993. They do not recall the bat documented 9/13/89 in the H & B records. According to Brian Hillerich, " I'm not saying he never used the bat. Albert Pujols on one occasion used one of the promo bats we sent him for autographing in a game because he liked the way it felt. And I'm not saying we didn't make the bat as shown. I'll try finding some records for our SB department from then but those are scattered worse than pro records."

MEARS spoke with with Chuck Shuppe, the pro player rep from H&B, who is usually the first person to deal with the athletes. Troy Kinunen notes, " When a super star or a highly touted rookie is being courted to use a H&B bat, they usually go through Shuppe. In the case of Michael Jordan, Shuppe would have been the one to deal with Jordan in regards to securing a bat deal with H&B. If you check with Shuppe regarding Arod and Jeter, you will see that some of their first orders were listed as Promotional. Typically we think of promotional entries as bats being sent for autograph signings and marketing deals, -- this is often true later in an established players career. But early on, Shuppe and H&B would record the first orders as promotional. From 1989 to 1993, Michael Jordan was not professionally playing baseball. There were no signings for him that bats would have been made. His first bats were simply recorded as promotional."

In addition, Troy spoke with Bob Rosenberg, the White Sox statitician . "He was on the the field the day Jordan took practice with the Sox. I was in his home and saw the photograph of him and Jordan by the batting cage. In the photo you could see Jordan using an H&B bat. Jordan also took BP at other times that were not publicized, so a bat would have been available to him."


Conclusion: This bat, although noted as " Baseball Promotions " in Jordan's H & B records, was most likely not promotional in the traditional sense of a multiple production run for a signing or promotional event. A single bat that appears in Jordan's records was likely sent to him as he requested, for some specific purpose. Also, it is noted that while the first 6 bats shipped as "Baseball Promotions" did not have specific weights noted, four subsequent orders to "Baseball Promotions" did have specified weights, which presumes manufacture for professional use.