Stampings on Louisville Sluggers from 1980-1983

[SkubeBats]

Hello,
I have been asking myself this question for sometime now and I would like to ask you all what you make of it. I have 3 game used bats from the time period of 1980-1983 BIG 125 Louisville Sluggers. As you can see that there is 3 different stampings found on them. You start with the top two bats and you notice that the Powerized stamping is angled downwards and the bottom bat's Powerized goes upwards. So that was 2 different stampings. Now here is the third stamping notice the the top bat and where the 125 is located in the midle circle. You see that the dot over the I in Louisville is under the 2 in the 125. Now look at the bottom two bats and the dot on the I in Louisville is between the 2 & 5. Why so many different types of stampings. Is there any way to tell if a bat is from certain year in the time period these stamping were used in 1980-1983. Can you tell if a bat is from say 1981 not 1982? I have many bats like these 3 with the different stampings. Lookfoward to seeing what you think....

[Birdbats]

Jamie, I have found bats pinpointed to specific seasons with the Powerized stamp running downhill in each of the four years of that era. So, IMO, you cannot date a bat from this era to a specific season based on the angle of the Powerized stamp alone. I'd guess the angle of the stamp simply varied by branding station.

The bat with the dot under the two is much more rare, apparently. As you know, I collect the 1982 Cardinals and have many bats from this label era. However, only one in my collection -- an Ozzie Smith pinpointed to records with a ship date of 10/5/82 -- has the dot under the two. The rest all have the dot between the two and the five. Never noticed that before tonight.

[Birdbats]

BTW, I have Ted Simmons bat envy. A Simmons with the 80-83 label is one of the voids in my Simmons bat collection. Nice.

[SkubeBats]

Jeff,
Thanks for the info on the stampings. To bad there isn't a better way to pinpoint the year on them. I have 4 other bats in my Brewers collection (Howell, Picciolo, Brouhard, and Thomas) that have the dot under the 2 in the 125. I just picked the Simmons bat up last week with 11 other 82 Brewers bats.

[Birdbats]

Then the Simmons is clearly an extra since you already had one, right? And it's available???

C'mon... humor me.

[SkubeBats]

Sorry to say it's the only one like it that I have in my collection and the only one I have ever seen. It's just pounded with use!!

[joelsabi]

Jeff,
Thanks for the info on the stampings. To bad there isn't a better way to pinpoint the year on them. I have 4 other bats in my Brewers collection (Howell, Picciolo, Brouhard, and Thomas) that have the dot under the 2 in the 125. I just picked the Simmons bat up last week with 11 other 82 Brewers bats.

Is there any way to tell if a bat is from certain year in the time period these stamping were used in 1980-1983. Can you tell if a bat is from say 1981 not 1982?

I am learning about bats and here is my observation based on information online and this is just a hypothesis which can be developed or refuted with more bat examples and comparing factory records.

Years not on Brewers for said players mentioned above and Simmons from the photo.
Howell, 1980
Picciolo, 1980 and 1981
Simmons 1980

So the bat dot under 2 in the 125 cannot be 1980 or 1981 if there is a way to distinguish individual years from the 1980-1983 period.

I just wonder how fast was the transition from large label and large 125 (1980-1983 period) to small label and small 125 (1983-1985 period) as the 2 label periods overlap in 1983. Not all bat label periods overlap like in 1983.

http://webpages.charter.net/birdbats...80-Current.htm

I am thinking the hybird bats (large 125, small label) were rare since it was used as a transition brand, maybe experimenting with brand change in late 1982 or early 1983.

Seems like a question for Brian for the real answer. Different branding plates at different workstation sounds like a good possibilty as branding on blonde bats were burned on manually. The number and LVS name are on the same plate apparently so it could be slight variations of a plate used on different workstations as your dot under 2 bat is different than the hybrid bat in the chart.

Anyone else have examples in their collection of LVS hybrid bats?

[SkubeBats]

Mike or BMH any ideas on this one or does anyone else have any info about these stampings.

[momen55]

i have a cliff johnson from 82 and a julio cruz from 83 and both have the "i" between the 2 and 5, if that indicates anything.

[joelsabi]

i have a cliff johnson from 82 and a julio cruz from 83 and both have the "i" between the 2 and 5, if that indicates anything.

So both your bats have the large 125, small label?

Is the Cliff Johnson bat a Oakland or Toronto bat?

Is the Julio Cruz bat a Mariners or White Sox bat?