Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

[indyred]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

Related to the Select Maple and M9 discussion, H&B also labeled their beechwood bats distinctly in 2004. I have a Mike Matheny that says "ProBeech" where the maple bats say "Select Maple." Matheny's factory records show only one order of beechwood bats on 7/19/04 (2 bats). Beech bats now have a B9 sticker, similar to the M9.

Regarding when H&B starting turning maple bats, I know of three Pujols maple C243C bats that match orders shipped in September and October of 2001 only. I have one, the Cardinals HOF/Museum has one, and Rob Steinmetz had one (before selling it recently). Not sure why H&B would say they started in 2003. Maybe they considered bats made before then to be experimental, and once players were satisfied with the product, they "officially" began marketing maple in 2003. Who knows?

Are beechwood B9 bats stille being used much? anyone seen anyone this year with one?

[chakes89]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

Yes

I know someone that got a B9 from Jerry Owens during spring training of this year

[BMH]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

We did produce some B9's this year but they were Birch and not Beech. We conducted some testing with the Birch to see how it holds up in BP. Since it was only testing we used some left over B9 stickers from the Beech project.

[indyred]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

Very interesting. Any idea who used the B9 birch bats this spring? besides Jerry Owens. That was a nice score getting that bat. How did the player's like the birch bats. What years did Louisville Slugger makes beechwood bats?

[mdube16]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

Here is an Ortiz 2004 Select Maple. The label is printed not burned. As was mentioned earlier, a nice advantage is that the bat can be dated to the WS year.


Thanks
Mark

mdube16@bellsouth.net

[eGameUsed]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

I really like the "Select Maple" Bats as well. First year for the Astros to win a playoff series! Most players were using M9s by the end of the season, but still nice to pinpoint to early 2004. Noticed in the attached photo the difference in the barrel stamping. The Kent bat has a much bolder stamping, where the letters appear thicker. The Biggio bat is unfinished of course, making the stamping look more fine and lighter.

[Jags Fan Dan]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

It was thanks to this thread I was able to identify this bat that I purchased last month:

[BMH]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

Yeah, I wouldn't say our bats were rare in 2004, we made a few thousand but like it has been noted we didn't really distinguish them from our Ash very well. I think the rarest Maple bats we produced were the 2003 WS bats. We used a new center brand on them. It was a Maple leaf with Louisville Slugger written in it. I of course don't have one here and can't find the are work but we only put it on those bats. For 2004 we went back to the pad printed the Pro Maple logo on them until the M9 was finished.

One thing to note we usually do a lot of testing/new things during the play offs. I know most would do it in ST but for some reason we end up doing it then.

[gameused]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

Yeah, I wouldn't say our bats were rare in 2004, we made a few thousand but like it has been noted we didn't really distinguish them from our Ash very well. I think the rarest Maple bats we produced were the 2003 WS bats. We used a new center brand on them. It was a Maple leaf with Louisville Slugger written in it. I of course don't have one here and can't find the are work but we only put it on those bats. For 2004 we went back to the pad printed the Pro Maple logo on them until the M9 was finished.

One thing to note we usually do a lot of testing/new things during the play offs. I know most would do it in ST but for some reason we end up doing it then.

Brian,

Here's a pic of an Edgar Renteria bat with the rare logo. I have not seen another bat on the market with this logo. This bat was for sale on John Taubes website after the 2004 World Series.

Bobby

[indyred]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

Wow, I've never seen that style bat with logo like that. Thanks for posting that picture gameused. Very rare indeed. I wonder what that Renteria sold for. Does anyone own any of those rare style bats. I bet they would fetch a nice premium.

[BMH]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

That's the logo!

I talked to my brother, he and a friend are the ones who came up with the logo. We used them on the the play off and WS bats. Sorry I put 2003 instead of 2004. All the years start blending together after a while.

[gameused]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

Wow, I've never seen that style bat with logo like that. Thanks for posting that picture gameused. Very rare indeed. I wonder what that Renteria sold for. Does anyone own any of those rare style bats. I bet they would fetch a nice premium.

Indy,

Taube had it listed for $579.00

Bobby

[Birdbats]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

That's the logo! I talked to my brother, he and a friend are the ones who came up with the logo. We used them on the the play off and WS bats. Sorry I put 2003 instead of 2004. All the years start blending together after a while.

Brian, so you're saying this logo was used on some 2004 post-season bats -- after the M9 sticker had already been introduced? I've seen several 2004 post-season Cardinals bats (mostly from the WS) and all had the M9 sticker. Bobby's Renteria bat is the only one I've ever seen with that particular logo. Thanks!

[BMH]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

Ah poo,that's what I get for posting late at night when I'm sleepy...

The logo was used for the 2003 post season. It couldn't have been for the 2004 because like you stated the M9 was already out.

In 2002 we kept having a problem with our clear and no finish Maple bats breaking. It was finally determined that the burn branding was going too deep into the wood and causing structural problems with the wood. So we started to use a pad printer to put on the CB for Maple bats. The pad printing was very hard to see when watching games on TV so we were in the process of looking for a new logo for our wood and the idea of the Maple leaf with LS going through it was brought up. So we made the logo and put it on the post season bats for 2003 (this is the last time I change the date, I SWEAR!). It was only used for the post season because our Marketing department didn't really like the logo and was already working on the M9 logo.

Sorry for the confusion, I'll try to keep my posts to working hours when I'm thinking clearly

[Birdbats]

Re: Louisville Slugger Maple bats in 2004 rare?

The logo was used for the 2003 post season.

Not to belabor the point, Brian, but the Cardinals missed the post season in 2003 (finished third in the Central division)... so I'm wondering how did Edgar Renteria end up with a post-season bat?

Looking at Edgar's records, I see he received 5 R205 maple bats (shipped to the Cardinals) on 9/5/03 and 2 more on 10/27 (customer is Brian Mejia). Those last two clearly were made after the season, so I'm betting they had the rare logo. Make sense to you?

The use on Bobby's bat is not consistent with Edgar's use. I don't recall seeing him use that kind of tape job or such heavy tar. It's a closer match to Reggie Sanders, who used tape, heavy tar and the R205. Reggie joined the team in 2004... so maybe he used Edgar's bat in spring training that year (Sanders had used maple R205 bats since 2001). Hard to know for sure... but it seems safe to say bats with the rare logo were made for some players who did not participate in 2003 post-season play.