A bat info needed

[tigerdale]

Just curious if anyone can help with dating 'A bat's. The past few years seem to be quite easy....in the photo, the bottom bat is a 2008 model...the middle bat, w/ team name & block letters is for sure, 2007. My question is when A bat went to block letters...I do know at the end of '06, I saw the block letters to...I just don't have any other rock solid references...the top bat would be the one I'm trying to date w/ that style of lettering....thanks for any help!!

[spartakid]

I have a bat just like the bottom one in your picture (2008) but instead of Curtis' name spelled out it has his signature engraved. It has all the same measurements on the bat though as yours. Ricardo

[tigerdale]

Hi, yes, I have one of those too. It is my understanding that the 'A bat's with a signature were purchased by the player & the block lettering were purchased by the team....

[spartakid]

Oh, thanks, that's more than I knew about the bat. It has an mlb holo that even says it was broken in the 8th inning against Guardado on Sept 7 of 2008. The commentators of the game even note that the bat was cracked, but unfortunately I was unable to find a definite photomatch. Oh well, Ricardo

[tigerdale]

just a follow up to this post, I'll attach a reply from A bat when they started block lettering. Also, I asked if there was any way to tell from the number code now put on if you could tell when it was made w/out asking them...which there isn't.

No, there is no way to get the date by the number itself. It’s just a number that is issued to that particular bat during production. We can easily look up the number and pull production records though.

Yup, you have done your homework! Back in 2004 and 2005 we were engraving most everything in italics, then in 2006 went back to block letters. In 2008 MLB changed some rules to where a bat manufacturer couldn’t put a team name on a bat unless there was either permission from the MLB licensing division, or the manufacturer had a licensing contract with MLB. So basically Louisville is the only bat company allowed to do that now. In 2009, MLB changed some more rules with maple, so that the handles were required to be either unfinished, or a natural finish. This year, they got rid of that rule, so now handle colors are allowed again on maple bats.