Manny Bat Question?

[scottanservitz]

Ok, Jon or any other Manny bat expert out there. I have a 2001 Rawlings Manny Ramirez game used bat. It was purchased from Taube and has the PSA paperwork as to authenticity. It matches everything as far as length and weight and I have some photos from Getty with Manny using this style of bat. It has a few ball marks on the barrel as well. My question is has Manny taped his bats in this fashion? It is the criss cross style similar to Griffey but with wider tape. I enclosed pics of the bat. It is really nice and living near Cleveland I really was fortunate to watch Manny become the beast of a hitter he is today. Thanks for the help!

Scott

[jon_8_us]

I personally have never seen a Manny bat with criss cross tape or seen Manny do it during a game.But thats not to say that it hasn't happened.Manny has experimented much during his career with all sorts of bats,tape jobs etc.What i can tell you is the autograph is good as much as i hate that style of his signature.Another thing Manny has switched up on much in his career!Could you post a picture of the knob?And barell end if there is a # there?Thanks
jon

[jon_8_us]

Also where are the seam indentation/ball marks located on the barrel
jon

[Nnunnari]

Scott,

I have an earlier Manny bat from his Indians days with a criss-cross tape job and I have seen another Manny bat with the same tape job.

Nick

[Carlevv]

Please post a close up of the tape job.

[scottanservitz]

Ok, here we go. The knob has 32 and Ramirez written in pencil. The ball marks are about an inch and a half to two inches above the Big Stick on the barrel. Very concentrated with about 5-6 good ones there. There are also seam marks and impressions. There are two ball marks a bit farther down, but as I stated the majority of the damage is above the Big Stick. I hope the pictures show well enough. Thanks to Nick for his insight as I have seen a couple Indians bats with the number on the knob very similar along with the sig. I've read in other posts about the hit pattern of Manny which I thought were above the label area. Jon, let me know what you think. Carlevv, I will try to get close ups of the tape later. There is pine tar on the bat, but not excessive like some of Manny's later bats. Thanks again to everyone for the help.
Scott

[scottanservitz]

Here's the tape job. Thanks.
Scott

[gamer35]

I dont have every game from 01 archived, but I do not ever recall Manny using a bat taped in that fashion as a member of the Red Sox.

The weird thing about this batch of bats that has been floating around is that the "Rameriz" written on the knob is always spelled wrong. I would assume it was not penned by Manny himself, but interesting nonetheless. Here is an auction link to another bat I am referring to.

http://cgi.ebay.com/MANNY-RAMIREZ-SI...QQcmdZViewItem

Signature is definitely good, although I would venture to guess that it is probably a BP bat based on the tape.

[staindsox]

Rawlings often writes the names of players on knobs at the factory. Every Rawlings I've owned has had the name and weight. This would explain the Ramirez mis-spelling. Hope this helps.

Chris

[scottanservitz]

Gamer35,
The reason I doubt it is a bp bat is it doesn't have that many ball marks. A bp bat would be hammered with ball and stitch marks. I had an Arod G174 and it had so many ball marks I couldn't count them all. This has approximately 8-10 hit marks. Another thing about seeing this tape in any photos is the tape blends with the bat making it tough to see. I think I found a baseball card, but I can't be sure. Anyhow, thanks for the input and I'll keep on looking.
Scott