Photo matched bat, I need your help!

[gameused]

Hey guys I think I have a photo match of a 2005 Manny Ramirez M9 Louisville Slugger Rose colored bat and I would appreciate your comments and help in locating a particular photo.

I get baseball catalogs in from Baseball Express and from the Summer 2006 catalog there is a photo of Manny on the cover swinging a Rose colored LVS bat with only the handle area visible, several weeks later I received the Summer B 2006 catalog and inside that catalog there's a Louisville Slugger ad and it has the same photo from the first summer catalog I received, the only difference is this photo shows most of the barrel area of the bat.

There are a couple of ballmarks on the M9 rose bat that match up nicely with the catalog photo. I called baseball express and they were not very helpful with helping me find that particular photo of Manny swinging.

I looked at some images on Sports Illustrated galleries and found a couple of photos of Manny from a game vs the Orioles on 6-2-05, I believe the SI photo is the same bat in the catalog.

Here's proof, on my bat there is some gray coloring from Manny's batting gloves, in the SI photo you can see that Manny's palm area of his gloves are also gray and if you look at the SI photo there's no number written on the end of knob, the same is true for the end of knob on my bat, also on the SI photo there is black pine tar on the centerbrand, on my bat there is a good coat of black pine tar and dirt. Let me know what you guys think!

Thanking you in advance for you comments and help.

Best Regards, Bobby

[kylehess10]

In my opinion I believe that truly is a photomatch. Everything matches up perfectly

[gameused]

Just noticed that the pine tar matches up in two areas on the handle.

Thanks, Bobby

[sportscentury]

Bobby,

Looks pretty good. I'd like to seem some higher-resolution photos if possible.

Reid

[GameBats]

Hi,
Could you post a photo of the entire bat?

[stkmtimo]

Bobby,
My initial review leads me to believe it is indeed a photomatch, but like Reid said, a few higher resolution photos would seal the deal. Great bat!

Tim

[indyred]

Looks good to me. Has anybody ever went and tried to track down the actual photographer. They must take 100's of pics from games and probally just put them on discs. Doesn't SI have a photo credit to the Manny picture. I'd be cool to see the pics they took that haven't been published. Great work, on finding the pics.....

[jon_8_us]

You did some good work here Bobby!Match looks good.Wanna sell me the bat??Email sent
jon

[gameused]

Here's more photos of the bat, thanks for your posts!

Bobby

[gameused]

Does anyone know how I can get in touch with Sports Illustrated photographers Damian Strohmeyer or Chuck Solomon, they took several photos of Manny with the Rose bat on 6-2-05 and I believe one of them took that catalog photo I'm looking for.

Looking for an e-mail or phone number of either photographer.

Thanks for your help!

Bobby