What's The Deal With BATS?

[godwulf]

Re: What's The Deal With BATS?

This is probably, at least in part, just a restatement of what others have expressed, but for me a bat is different because it's something the player has really used...not just something they wore. (Sure, they use their fielding gloves, too, but how available are those?)

I've had several players, when asked to sign a bat, get downright emotional about it - Steve Finley and Damon Berryhill come to mind, and just recently, Micah Owings.

All the other reasons - Jag Fan Dan summed them up very well.

[godwulf]

Re: What's The Deal With BATS?

Geez, I had a scary moment there, when I thought I'd gone dyslexic and messed up Jag Fan Dan's name. This board really needs an Edit function.

[metsbats]

Re: What's The Deal With BATS?

I agree with Jeff. Bats are very personal for a player. Once he finds a good piece of lumber he will generally stick with it until it breaks or "it runs of hits". Players are generally superstitious about their bats more than any piece of equipment and when they are in a slump some players are know to sleep their bats! Just think the bat you own may have been that players bed.

The bat symbolizes the essence of the game. The action starts with the bat hitting the ball and putting into play. The use on the bat, the tar, the lace marks, the ball marks, the deadwood are remanents of this action.

David

[70to66]

Re: What's The Deal With BATS?

Its the players war club, not to many players will give you a game used jersey. There is a rush when a player gives you a bat. Alot of people can get an autograph from a player, very few can score a bat.

[AWA85]

Re: What's The Deal With BATS?

Your right 70to66, I've sold many of my autographs and certified autograph cards just so I could add a few more bats to my collection. I just think a bat looks so much nicer than a few cards when being displayed. It also means more to me and my collection.

[Vintagedeputy]

Re: What's The Deal With BATS?

A bat is a weapon that a player uses for battle.......

Patton wouldnt have been caught dead without his pearl handled .45's

Jim

[Jags Fan Dan]

Re: What's The Deal With BATS?

Geez, I had a scary moment there, when I thought I'd gone dyslexic and messed up Jag Fan Dan's name. This board really needs an Edit function.

It is a bit of a naughty tongue twister isn't it???

[MSpecht]

Re: What's The Deal With BATS?

Here is the forward to the book BATS. It's hard to believe that it has been 13 years since we wrote this.

"Like no other piece of baseball equipment, bats provide a window to the past. They are a connection to the players who roam the landscape of baseball's rich history. "Bats are," Hank Hersh once noted, "the most vital variable in a sport that relishes constants." Uniforms, caps, gloves, and cleats are all standardized, their connections to a player annotated by a label, number, or stitched-in name that tells little about the user.

Bars are different.

The characteristics left upon a bat by the player who used it transforms an undistinguished piece of wood into an artistic masterpiece revealing personality traits, athletic nuances, and, on occasion, some very peculiar habits. Stories of players' relationships with their bats are legendary in baseball lore.

Ted Williams once returned a shipment of ordered bats to Hillerich & Bradsby because he felt the handles were too thick -- sure enough, H & B found them to be 5/1000 th of an inch thicker than Williams' specifications. Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner religiously rubbed their bats with a bone or bottle to smooth and tighten the surface, believing it would harden the wood and prevent it from chipping. Norm Cash perfected the practice of corking a bat; he would bore a hole in the barrel about eight inches deep and fill it with a mixture of cork, sawdust, and glue, thereby reducing the weight of the bat while retaining the mass in order to make the ball jump.

Other players seem almost cavalier about their bats. Pete Rose would swing his bats on game day and merely pick out the one that felt best. Paul Waner would often reach into the bat pile and use whichever bat he picked up, regardless of whose it was. Bucky Dent buried the Red Sox in the 1978 playoff game with a bat he had borrowed from Mickey Rivers, who previously had borrowed it from Roy White.

Every bat tells a story about the player who used it. Bats connect you to a player and a time like no other piece of baseball equipment. When you hold your favorite player's bat in your hands, you hold the spirit of that player. Swing the bat and for an instant you are facing that Sandy Koufax fastball. Immediately, you recall vivid scenes from your youth -- that trip to the ballpark with Dad. and the game-winning home run.

There are many reasons people collect game used professional baseball bats. While this information will be of value to all collectors, we wrote this book for the collector who truly loves the game and revels in the resplendent and rewarding history of baseball."

--Vince Malta, Ron Fox, Bill Riddell, and Mike Specht

[skyking26]

Re: What's The Deal With BATS?

Very interesting comments. It's obvious those of us that collect do so because of the fondness for the game we have. I failed to mention earlier that bats display easier, and generally cost less than the other GU items.

Lost today are the easy purchases, the trades, the fun. I just completed a quick deal with Mike Specht for a tuff bat I have needed for some time. No games. Just a quick negotiation and complete. Both of us are happy. I am so TIRED of games. Life does not have to be that hard. This is supposed to be a hobby of enjoyment, not stress. I get enough of that in all other areas of my life, I don't need it here. Thanks Mike for an insightful look at the hobby and for making one moment last week tolerable...

RK

[geoff]

Re: What's The Deal With BATS?

To me its just what I like collecting.Plus Bats are the first Game Used Items that I started collecting and then went from there.But Bats are my passion in the Game Used World.