‘Powerized’ Branding Variation on 1976 H & B Bicentennial Bats --- What ???

[sayhey24]

Now the question is -- can the person who got taken with the bad Bench bat get his money back?

Greg

[jbsportstuff]

What a great thread. I've seen one bench bat that has both powerized and the bicenttenial logo...but the bat literally had no use. I asked the seller if it was guarenteed to pass PSA or Mears and they said ABSOLUTELY. I just didn't feel comfortable with it....

[33bird]

Mike did some great homework and I helped with some of the stuff, but let's not jump the gun and consider the issue dead. Dave Grob is writing an article about the 1976 bats right now and already has evidence of 7 different branding variations used during the 1976 season on H&B bats. After we read his research on the subject we should know a lot more about the crazy bicentennial bats!

[MSpecht]

This morning Dave Grob posted an informative article on the MEARS site which catalogs branding variations seen in 1976 H & B bats. The article can be found at

http://www.mearsonline.com/news/newsDetail.asp?id=715

While informative, I believe it addresses a slightly different topic that the one that began this thread. And, actually, there is no significant conflict between our articles--- I focused exclusively on what Dave terms the Type III and Type IV variations---(Powerized w/ Liberty Bell)---- and also mentioned the Type V variation in the original article... I did not consider the dash / no dash variations in the discussion as that has been long recognized as existing in 1976 and was not relevant to the specific question at hand..

The issues I take with Dave's article are that, while a 'legitimate variation' (as they obviously exist), the fact remains that in 34 years, NO evidence has surfaced that any of these bats has seen use in a Major League game --- not one photograph has been found that shows a Type III or Type IV variation in the hands of any Major League player, nor have any of these bats been sourced from player's (batboys, etc) collections. That either speaks to 1) the rarity of the variation, or 2) the possibility that these variations never made it into the hands of the players whose name appears on the barrel, or even into Major League clubhouses.

One statement that I think is a bit misleading, is Dave's comment that the possibility that many, if not all, of these known variations entered the hobby from a single source "has no bearing on the issue of labeling variations." While that is technically true, I think that, to the average reader, it suggests that these "Powerized / Liberty Bell" bats:

1) 'have the potential' to be professional model bats, (yes)

2) that were manufactured by H & B, (yes)

3) for the personal professional use of the player whose name appears on the barrel (maybe, maybe not), and

4) were in fact used by that player (no evidence of that has surfaced in 34 years).

I think the main issue here is that Dave and I are really writing about two different things: Dave writing about his research regarding the known branding variations that have been seen in 1976 H & B bats, and my article regarding the (very, very slim) liklihood / potential / possibility that two of these variations (one variation if you do not factor in the dash) actually ever saw professional game use or even made it into players' hands (here is where the single source takes on importance.) Two different subjects researched for two different reasons.

The unfortunate thing about this situation is that we have seen solid evidence that one of these Powerized / Liberty Bell variations had been faked up (very well apparently) for the sole purpose of defrauding collectors and turning an unused, professional model variation bat worth a couple hundred dollars into a highly-sought (1976) game used (seemingly perfect GU player characteristics) Hall of Famer (Johnny Bench) bat potentially worth what, $ 3500.00 plus ?? Without catching this, and alerting collectors, how many of these previously unused Powerized / Liberty Bell variations would have turned up in the future with manufactured professional use ? And still might ?

Mike

[camarokids]

Here is a Roy White 1976 Bicentennial LS Bat with the Powerized Logo!

http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-ROY-WHITE-G...item2c54944746

[ironmanfan]

Here is a Roy White 1976 Bicentennial LS Bat with the Powerized Logo!

http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-ROY-WHITE-G...item2c54944746

Most likely the same Roy White bat referred to earlier

[jbsportstuff]

Most likely the same Roy White bat referred to earlier

The biggest issue is that there has never been any photo proof of any major league ballplayer using a bat that has the 1976 Bicentennial logo and the powerized logo. Until that happens, I can't believe that they were ever used by a player. See Mike's post below point #4.