A little more than a year ago, I bought a 1926 Cardinals home jersey and an alleged game-used bat from the family of Ray Blades. The bat has no markings at all -- consistent with the few photos I've seen of Blades holding a bat -- and is similar to H&B's Hornsby style. Then last month, I was offered a Taylor Douthit bat in exchange for a Bob Gibson item I owned. I made the trade because I'm a sucker for old bats, but after I put it on the wall with the Blades bat, I started thinking, "Huh... I have the left fielder and center fielder for the Cardinals 1926 world champs (the team's first title)."

I recalled I had a couple buddies who owned a Billy Southworth (right fielder) and a Les Bell (3B), so I contacted them and, within the past couple of weeks, they generously worked out trades with me. Then I found a bat online with a 1925-28 center brand and the initials F.R. on the barrel. After a couple hours of research, I determined the only MLB player with those initials between 1914 and 1932 was Flint Rhem, the '26 team's only 20-game winner. I grabbed it with a fair degree of confidence that this Hornsby-style, non-contract bat may have been used by the young pitcher.

I guess it's now official -- I'm building a 1926 team set.

So, I'm in search of Hornsby (2B), Bottomley (1B), Bob O'Farrell (C) and Tommy Thevenow (SS) to round out my starting nine. If available, I'd also be interested in other position players (Chick Hafey, Heinie Mueller, Wattie Holm, Specs Toporcer) and pitchers (Pop Haines, Pete Alexander, Bill Sherdel, Vic Keen, Art Reinhart). Given the costs of legit Hornsby and Bottomley bats, I might consider nice pre-Powerized retail bats as placeholders until I can find (and afford) the real things.

I know this quest is going to get much tougher and more expensive, but there's no turning back now. So, if you have leads on any of the bats I need for the team set, I'd appreciate hearing from you -- birdbats@charter.com. Thanks!

[BTW, Freigau and McHenry were gone before '26; I'm just displaying their bats with the '26 guys, for now.]