As all of you know, MLB had that study with all broken bats used between July until the end of the season. I currently own 7 bats used during this time period and SIX of them had custom tape jobs that were on the handle REMOVED. All are MLB authenticated (as should all broken bats from this study) and each had some type of tape job that was on the handle or knob removed. I'm not sure if this was done for the study or if the team was just smoking crack. If you have a bat from the broken bat study last year, then please let me know if yours has any tape removed like on mine.