Boggs Knob Numbers, A View On Authentication

[soxbats]

Boggs Knob Numbers, A View On Authentication Part 1 of 7

So I have been a been a avid reader and sometimes poster on this forum for a number of years, joining in its first iteration as game used forum. I have been collecting for over 25 years, have handled more than a thousand Red Sox bats, and looked at probably hundreds of more in auctions and online. At the time I started, there was no such thing as photo matching or video matching and of course no MLB authentication.

I have learned a tremendous amount from those of you who post on the site, and have lurched into the 21st century. I now screen shot from MLB HD and scour Getty images. But I also very much enjoy the more traditional discussions of authentication that revolve around player use characteristics. Tim's expert posts have inspired me to write up some Boggs knob numbering analysis that I have been playing with for a few years, so please allow a moment of indulgence.

Recently, I have read posts that discuss "players handwriting" reflected on the numbers on the knobs, and some limited suggestion that bats without knob numbers written a certain way were "fake" or "fraudulent." Player characteristics are a vital part of authentication, especially for the very valuable high end bat. And I might not buy a bat that does not have the typical player characteristics, but that does not necessarily mean the bat is fake or fraudulent. Further, the modern bat faker is likely bright enough to research player characteristics, but that is a story for a different day (Mike Specht's discussion of the fake Bench bicentennial bat for example).

Back to Boggs. Much has been written and discussed about his habits and the way that numbers were written on the knobs of his bats. A review of Getty is replete with pictures that show his typical Red Sox knob numbering:



Picture 1 common knob