Hi Rod--

Sorry I did not see the follow-up question on the previous post.

During the 1973-75 label perion, there are no shipments of K75 bats documented as going to Reggie Jackson. He did, however, use K75 bats prior to 1973 and subsequent to 1975.

His first order of K75 was shipped on 4/20/67. Subsequent orders are documented in in each following year until 2/3/71. Thereafter, from 10/13/82 through 3/8/89, all orders of K75 Jackson signature model bats were shipped to Baseball Miscellaneous (usually without a specified weight), Baseball Promotions, or other promotional companies.

What happened that would cause Reggie to suddenly stop use (or orders) of a model that he had ordered frequently throughout his career up to early 1971? On 3/23/71 Jackson was shipped 6 model J93 bats -- J93 model bats were a new model, made at Jackson's request, that are documented in Jackson's personal factory records as "Model K75 with (illegible) off the barrel (new) model J93" Basically, Jackson modified a K75 bat to reduce the barrel size and come up with a bat that he preferred, which was designated J93, and which remained his model of preference through the remainder of his career.

Jim may have more specific information on Yankee team index orders in the 1973-75 label period. Given that many Jackson signature model K75 bats were sent to Baseball Miscellaneous over the years as noted above, it was most certainly used as an H & B pro stock model of Reggie Jackson's, and could likely have been included in team orders with Jackson's signature.

Here's an important tip. All of Jacksons K75 bats shipped for his professional use were in lengths of 35.5 inches ( 95% of the orders) and 35 inches ( 5% ). Models in later label periods shipped to Baseball Miscellaneous were always in 34.5 inch lengths, and one order to Ike Co. (promo) was 34 inches. Those dimensions may have been consistent with earlier (non-documented) Baseball Miscellaneous orders. Team orders, however, would have likely been in a variety of lengths as they were ordered for the use of any player in the organization.
Finally, yes, model K75 is referenced in the book BATS as a model used in the 1973-75 label period by Reggie Jackson. That information was later found to be in error when the H & B factory records became available. Here is a description of the basic research component that went into that book:

"The publishing of the book BATS -- PROFESSIONAL HILLERICH & BRADSBY AND ADIRONDACK 1950-1994 was completed in July, 1995 and the book debuted at the St. Louis National that year. The book was the first all-inclusive resource available to game used bat collectors. The information in the book was gathered from a Who's Who of Bat Collecting at the time, including, in addition to the authors (Vince Malta, Bill Riddell, Ron Fox, and Mike Specht), such people as Dave Bushing, Steve Terman, Michael Montbriand, John Taube, Stanley Kesselman, and Zane Burns. In addition to the resource it provided, the publication of the book was instrumental in uncovering the Holy Grail for bat collectors, the Hillerich & Bradsby factory records."

A more complete description may be found in the Expert's Corner on the Game Used Universe site at http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/blog/post.php?topic=151

At the point of initial sale of the book, a sheet was inserted into each book noting approximately 10 errors that had been discovered after the book had gone to the publisher. Along with the error you found, one of the most frequent inclusions that is the source of questions is Carl Yaztrzemski's use of model K48 bats during his career.

Mike Jackitout7@aol.com