Quote Originally Posted by yanks12025 View Post
Not to be negative but a bat with just initials could be a minor leaguer or just a regular person, doesn't always mean major leaguer. But there was a Hornsby sold last year with just R H. But there's photos of him holding bats with his initials.
Certainly considered that. The bat is side written, but only the date (7/14/28) is clearly readable. There were seven minor leaguers I could find with those initials in 1928. Most of those guys played at very low levels, and only three of the seven had more career minor league ABs than Rhem -- a pitcher -- had major league ABs by mid '28. Given that -- plus the fact it's a Hornsby style and the Cards were known to order bats with initials (as you point out with the Hornsby) -- I feel good about the probability. I'd like to confirm with H&B, assuming they have Rhem's PBOR, but so far, nobody has returned my calls. Still more research to be done.