Nokona Bats and The Wrecking Crew

[mwbosoxfan]

I’m just looking for some comments or inside knowledge of how some of the equipment endorsement deals work. Early in the season, I kept hearing a radio advertisement on EEI out of Boston about the Nokona Wrecking Crew. David Ortiz, Miguel Tejada, and Vlad Guerrero – The Wrecking Crew had signed a deal “exclusively” with Nokona. I also noticed early in the season that Ortiz was indeed swinging a Nokona bat. Still very early in the season, Ortiz’s power numbers were not coming up and soon noticed he was back with his Rawlings 2-tone models and has pretty much been swinging them all season. Power numbers and HR’s still down, but attributed to mostly to a knee problem.

I do watch a lot of Sox games, so much of this is from personal observation. I don’t follow Tejada much, and haven’t paid much attention as to what he is using when he’s been on the screen. I see quite a few Vlad bats for sale, but honestly don’t recall any of them being Nokona. I guess my question is - Does the endorsing player have any obligation to use the product he’s endorsing? I once saw a Reggie Jackson LS with a piece of athletic tape in position where the Adirondack ring would be. I was told he had an exclusive deal, so he technically wasn’t suppose to be using H&B bats. Does anyone know if that’s true?

Actually, what made me want to ask about Nokona and The Wrecking Crew is that I’ve recently seen some Manny Ramirez Nokona bats for sale (2 currently on eBay), but have never seen him use one in a game. Bobby or Jon – do you have any thoughts? Jon, I saw you had given one a thumbs down recently.

I haven’t heard the Nokona advertisements on the radio in quite some time. Just seemed like some serious money spent on advertisements and a web site, and not a great deal of actual usage by the players. Anybody have any insight or answers to my question, please chime in.

Thanks,
John

[BMH]

From what I know of LS contracts we offer say $1500 and a set of golf clubs for a bat contract with a player. I have no idea what sort of contracts we issue for gloves or anything like that. Anyway, in these contracts there might be bonuses for batting champion, reaching play offs, the WS, and different milestones such as Biggio's 3000 hits or Arod reaching 600 using our equipment.

Most contracts aren't going to be for very much when it comes to bats. Player's aren't very loyal anymore. You have them switching all the time. Sosa was under contract with Easton a few years ago, they paid almost 6 figures for him to use their bats! Well, Easton had a box and a party to showcase their new talent. At his first at bat he came up with a X-Bat, his second was with a LS. A phone call and a threat later he was swinging an Easton. That was the last time I heard of big money being spent on a bat contract. I don't know about the Nokona deal.

[indyred]

During the home run contest this year. I recall Ortiz came over and gave Vlad a bat to use in the contest. He had it in some kind of case that looked really cool. I wonder if that was a Nokona bat. Does anyone have mlb.tv or pictures from the derby handy? I wonder if that little bit was set from Nokona, with them having them under contract. Does anyone remember this. I remember thinking what the heck was Ortiz doing giving Vlad a bat out of some case....

[gamer35]

Manny never used a Nokona bat in a game situation this year, not once.

[gameused]

John,

Good question. I don't think Ortiz had a contract to use Nokona exclusively, my guess is that Nokona being a new bat company paid Ortiz, Vlad and Tejada some money for endorsing their brand and were given free wood.

Ortiz has not used a Nokona in a while, not sure why, maybe his supply ran out. I have seen Vlad use Nokona earlier this year and he used a Nokona bat to win the Home run derby at the all star game this year.

I spoke to a person at Nokona this year as I wanted to find out shipping records on one of my Ortiz Nokona bats, the gentleman was more of a salesman and could not answer any ordering questions, he did tell me to send the bat to him and he could get it signed by Ortiz for me for free and that I would have it back in a couple of weeks, I thanked him for the offer but politely declined.

The Manny Nokona bats that you are referring to, they looked to be used by David Ortiz or some other player.

Best Regards, Bobby

[CollectGU]

At the top of the article is the link to the video of Papi bringing him the bat and yes it was a Nokona bat:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070709&content_id=2078972&vkey=news_ana&fext=.jsp&c_id=ana&partnered=rss_ana

Regards,
Dave

[mwbosoxfan]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and insight. Pretty interesting stuff, like how the LS contracts work. Good investigative work to determine that Vlad's HR Derby bat was actually a Nokona, and I appreciate the opinions on the Manny bats.

Has anyone else ever heard about or actually seen a Reggie Jackson LS with the tape ring?

Thanks,
John

[jon_8_us]

John,

Good question. I don't think Ortiz had a contract to use Nokona exclusively, my guess is that Nokona being a new bat company paid Ortiz, Vlad and Tejada some money for endorsing their brand and were given free wood.

Ortiz has not used a Nokona in a while, not sure why, maybe his supply ran out. I have seen Vlad use Nokona earlier this year and he used a Nokona bat to win the Home run derby at the all star game this year.

I spoke to a person at Nokona this year as I wanted to find out shipping records on one of my Ortiz Nokona bats, the gentleman was more of a salesman and could not answer any ordering questions, he did tell me to send the bat to him and he could get it signed by Ortiz for me for free and that I would have it back in a couple of weeks, I thanked him for the offer but politely declined.

The Manny Nokona bats that you are referring to, they looked to be used by David Ortiz or some other player.

Best Regards, Bobby

My thoughts exactly.No way Manny has used a Nokona this year.About Ortiz using them..i was listening to WEEI very early in the season this year and on the Dale and Holley show that was broadcasting from Fenway they were given a Ortiz model Nokona and told that he just signed a contract to use these bats.That was the first game that ortiz used Nokona.He used them for awhile pretty exclusively then just stopped.He has used them sporadically ever since.
Jon