Vince Malta Book Update

[ChrisCavalier]

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to take a moment to update everyone regarding the status of Vince Malta's upcoming "Complete Reference Guide to Louisville Slugger Professional Player Bats". I had the privilege of being part of a meeting yesterday with Mr. Malta and the publisher where the design components were approved. Thus, the publisher now has all they need to move forward and the only steps that remain at this point are the artwork production, proofing and printing.

At this point I can definitely confirm the following:

1) Barring any major hiccups (which are not expected given the remaining steps) the book should be ready in time for the holidays (hopefully in November); and

2) I actually received copies of the different sections of the book yesterday and I will tell you that this book is going to be absolutely incredible.

In addition, we were given more player charts in the meeting yesterday which will be be adding to the site over the next few months until the book is released. When all is said and done we will have over 140 player charts available for members.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions. I can tell you that, although the book has taken longer than expected to get to market, once it is released you will see that it is definitely worth the wait.

Sincerely,
Christopher Cavalier
CEO - Game Used Universe

[ChrisCavalier]

Re: Vince Malta Book Update

I spoke with the publisher yesterday and they, along with Vince, are in the final stages of the proofing process. Once the proofing is completed, the only thing that remains is the final printing.

As of right now, the target delivery date is December 15th and they are doing everything they can to try to get the book out before the holidays. However, given the likely reliance of the player charts in the book, they are taking extra care to make sure there aren't any typographical errors in that regard (and there are a lot of charts). I will reconnect with the publisher over the next week to see if the proofing is done by then and if the December 15th date is still likely at that point.

In addition, we have been working with our site developer to improve our process for loading the player charts on the GUU site. At this point, we have about 80 more charts we need to add to have all the charts available on GUU (there are nearly 140 in all). I confirmed with our developer this morning that we should have about half of the remaining charts (about 40) online by the end of November and the other remaining half (the other 40) by December 15th to coincide with the potential release date.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any other questions. I hope everyone can see by the book excerpt Mike Specht used in his post about factory records (linked below) that this book is going to be an indispensable resource for game used bat collectors:

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_f...ead.php?t=5363

Sincerely,
Chris Cavalier

[ChrisCavalier]

Re: Vince Malta Book Update

Hello Everyone,

I have spoken with both Vince Malta and the book publisher and it looks like the book is now scheduled for release sometime in late January. The reason is that the publisher is being extra careful in the proofing process since they will not be able to make any changes (especially in the bat player chart section) once the book is published.

For more information about the book, below is a link to a story that was written for the Sports Collector's Daily site. Notably, I believe the first two paragraphs speak to the timing of the release:

http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com...ost-ready.html

When I spoke with Vince he was very apologetic that the book was not able to be released before the holidays. As such...

Vince has offered to put together an additional 10 charts of notable players not in the Hall-of-Famers that we can post on the GUU site for its members. Therefore, if our members can post suggestions of who they would like to see (I'm guessing guys like Pete Rose, Gil Hodges, etc.) we will select 10 players for which Vince has the records. If you would like to make any suggestions as to which players you would like to see charts for, please respond on the following thread:

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=5563

In addition, in case you haven't seen it already, we have posted all of the player charts from the book online in the 'Game Used Library' section of the GUU site. Please note that the charts are best viewed using the latest version of Adobe Acrobat reader which can be downloaded FREE from the Adobe site located at:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions about the charts. Here is a list of all 145 player charts that are now available on the Game Used Universe site:

Aaron, Henry
Alston, Walter
Anderson, Sparky
Aparicio, Luis
Appling, Luke
Ashburn, Richie
Averill, Earl
Bancroft, Dave
Banks, Ernie
Bench, Johnny
Berra, Yogi
Boggs, Wade
Bottomley, Jim
Boudreau, Lou
Brett, George
Brock, Lou
Bunning, Jim
Campanella, Roy
Carew, Rod
Carey, Max
Carlton, Steve
Carter, Gary
Cepeda, Orlando
Clemente, Roberto
Cobb, Ty
Cochrane, Mickey
Collins, Eddie
Combs, Earle
Cronin, Joe
Cuyler, Kiki
Dean, Dizzy
Dickey, Bill
DiMaggio, Joe
Doby, Larry
Doerr, Bobby
Drysdale, Don
Durocher, Leo
Eckersley, Dennis
Feller, Bob
Ferrell, Rick
Fingers, Rollie
Fisk, Carlton
Ford, Whitey
Fox, Nellie
Foxx, Jimmie
Frisch, Frankie
Gehrig, Lou
Gehringer, Charlie
Gibson, Bob
Gomez, Lefty
Goslin, Goose
Greenberg, Hank
Grimes, Burleigh
Grove, Lefty
Gwynn, Tony
Hafey, Chick
Hartnett, Gabby
Heilmann, Harry
Heinie, Manush
Herman, Billy
Hornsby, Rogers
Hoyt, Waite
Hunter, Catfish
Irvin, Monte
Jackson, Reggie
Jackson, Travis
Jenkins, Fergie
Kaline, Al
Kell, George
Kelly, George
Killebrew, Harmon
Kiner, Ralph
Klein, Chuck
Koufax, Sandy
Lasorda, Tommy
Lazzeri, Tony
Lemon, Bob
Lindstrom, Freddy
Lombardi, Ernie
Lopez, Al
Lyons, Ted
Mantle, Mickey
Maranville, Rabbit
Marichal, Juan
Mathews, Eddie
Mays, Willie
Mazeroski, Bill
McCovey, Willie
Medwick, Joe
Mize, Johnny
Molitor, Paul
Morgan, Joe
Murray, Eddie
Musial, Stan
Newhouser, Hal
Niekro, Phil
Ott, Mel
Paige, Satchel
Palmer, Jim
Perez, Tony
Perry, Gaylord
Puckett, Kirby
Reese, Pee Wee
Rice, Sam
Ripken Jr., Cal
Rizzuto, Phil
Roberts, Robin
Robinson, Brooks
Robinson, Frank
Robinson, Jackie
Roush, Edd
Ruffing, Red
Ruth, George “Babe”
Ryan, Nolan
Sandberg, Ryne
Schmidt, Mike
Schoendienst, Red
Seaver, Tom
Sewell, Joe
Simmons, Al
Sisler, George
Slaughter, Enos
Smith, Ozzie
Snider, Duke
Spahn, Warren
Speaker, Tris
Stargell, Willie
Stengel, Casey
Sutter, Bruce
Sutton, Don
Terry, Bill
Traynor, Pie
Vance, Dazzy
Vaughan, Arky
Waner, Lloyd
Waner, Paul
Wheat, Zack
Wilhelm, Hoyt
Williams, Billy
Williams, Ted
Wilson, Hack
Winfield, Dave
Wynn, Early
Yastrzemski, Carl
Yount, Robin

As always, I am happy to answer any other questions you may have.

Sincerely,
Christopher Cavalier
CEO - Game Used Universe