Ron Gardenhire Help...?

[cmuelken]

I have a game used bat of current twins manager Ron Gardenhire. On the knob of the bat is writen "20". I know alot of players write there number on the knob but was doing research and couldn't find when or if Gardenhire ever used number 20. I know in his major league days with the Mets he was #19. Anyone know if any information, have pics or anything that depict #20. It could be from his minor league days as well? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[cmuelken]

Any Mets fans out there that may be able to help out....?

[sox83cubs84]

It MIGHT be a minor league bat, or else a MLB Mets bat that was used by a teammate. Players will sometimes use teammates bats for everything from experimenting with a new model to superstition about a hot hitting teammate's bats being full of hits.

With pics, we could date the bat...that would maybe narrow it down a bit.

Dave Miedema

[metsbats]

Gardenhire played for the Mets between 1981-1985.

These are the players who wore no. 20 during those years

Greg Harris 1981
Rick Ownbey 1982-1983
Mike Fitzgerald 1984
Howard Johnson 1985

As Dave M stated a photo of the bat would help date the bat and perhaps narrow it down to one of these time periods during his Met years or one prior to them.

[cmuelken]

Here are some pictures. There is no other numbers or information on the knob other than the "20". Thanks for your help too.

[metsbats]

This appears to be from 1986 as evidenced by the foil stamped name and registered trademark symbol after "LOUISVILLE SLUGGER" which appeared on HB bats from the 86-89 time period.

Gardenhire played his last game as a Met in 1985 but as traded to the Twins where he spent time with the Triple A team before retiring.

If I had to guess the bat could have been used by Howard Johnson or by Gardenhire while he was playing for the Twins Triple A team (if his no. was 20 of course).