Help needed with a Grady Sizemore diablo?

[mcd2498]

Hi all,

I just recently got into the used bat collecting hobby. I just purchased a "game used" grady sizemore diablo bat, model number Gs10. Now being an indians and sizemore fan, I am well aware he uses the M9 models in the majors, so i am fairly sure this diablo bat was from his days in the minors. Many diablos use the players initals and jersey number for their bat model numbers, so im assuming at the time the bat was made sizemore was wearing #10. i have spent hours searching the web and images looking for him in a #10 jersey but all i can find is #17 from his year in AA and i believe #2 on one of his first rookie cards. Im just wondering if any of you have some words or wisdom or advice in finding out a date/time when he possibly used a diablo, or would know yourself? I just emailed diablo asking for info but have not heard back yet. If you need any extra info regarding pics, the seller on ebay or anything else let me know. Looking forward to posting more on this site as i get my collection going. Thanks guys! :D

[Aksflyest]

Where are you getting the number 10 from?..Model number? The model number here isn't related to the player number its the model of the make of the bat ie the LVS M110 which he normally uses. In regards to the Diablo..I can't think of ever seeing Grady use a Diablo. Season ticket holder to the Indians, Akron Aeros (AA Indians team), and I go to spring training, and can't think of a time I've personally seen him use one. In AA i did see him use Sam bats frequently, but only LVS in recent years. I've seen several suspect Diablo bats floating around Ebay that I've personally just opted to avoid. Hope this helps some and good luck building your collection

[GarkoCollector]

Shoot me an email. I might be able to help.
Tom

[scottanservitz]

Indians lifer here as well. I watch every game during the season minus one here and there. I also have never seen Grady use a Diablo. If you are getting a steal and really like the look...that is fine. If you think it saw game use......tough to prove. Anyway, as someone said here that these Diablos are showing up a lot. Some players have used them, but without doing some research first you have to be careful. Just a thought.

Scott

[tbone90]

As a life long Tribe fan I can say Grady has been pretty exclusive to LVS the past couple years, black M110's to be exact. I can't say anything though for what he might have used in the minors but I did see a minor league pic with him using a blonde Carolina Club.

I also noticed the glut of Diablo bats appearing on ebay recently. Amazingly they all had tremendous amounts of use too. And if you're a bat collector then you probably noticed many gamer Diablos were from players not normally associated with using them. I steered clear of them as well.

[mcd2498]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your replys and help. I agree, i have never seen sizemore use one and watch most indians and AA in akron ( im from the NE ohio area). When i saw the bat i was assuming it was from his early minor league days (2001-2003). I researched the internet for hours and the only photos i can find in the minors have him wearing #17 for AA akron, a #2, #16 in an expos uni and a AAA buffalo hat with #17 written on the brim. From studying diablos i noticed several players have models with their intials followed by their number. An example would be one of manny's diablos being Mr24. The sizemore one says Gs10. Thats why im assuming it was from early minor league days and i have never seen him using one in the majors. I posted pics of the bat below. I should be getting it in the mail tomorrow. I emailed the seller yesterday and i also emailed diablo and asked but have not gotten a response. Perhaps i got burned on it. My first bat purchased last april was a hafner BP x-bat. It was purchased through eric wedge's charity foundation and came with a COA signed by him so i know its legit. Anyways, hope its legit. Thanks again!

[GarkoCollector]

If you might be interested in another unique Indians bat, please email me.


Hi guys,

Thanks for your replys and help. I agree, i have never seen sizemore use one and watch most indians and AA in akron ( im from the NE ohio area). When i saw the bat i was assuming it was from his early minor league days (2001-2003). I researched the internet for hours and the only photos i can find in the minors have him wearing #17 for AA akron, a #2, #16 in an expos uni and a AAA buffalo hat with #17 written on the brim. From studying diablos i noticed several players have models with their intials followed by their number. An example would be one of manny's diablos being Mr24. The sizemore one says Gs10. Thats why im assuming it was from early minor league days and i have never seen him using one in the majors. I posted pics of the bat below. I should be getting it in the mail tomorrow. I emailed the seller yesterday and i also emailed diablo and asked but have not gotten a response. Perhaps i got burned on it. My first bat purchased last april was a hafner BP x-bat. It was purchased through eric wedge's charity foundation and came with a COA signed by him so i know its legit. Anyways, hope its legit. Thanks again!

[jonincleve]

any vote for a bp bat? i started collecting grady sizemore stuff back in 2003/2004. in the majors i have only seen him use ls bats. i do have a couple of minor league bats. one is a sam bat and another is a rawlings bat. i have seen a couple of sam bats from the same batch, but i have never seen another rawlings bat. just wanted to throw out some more information.

take care
john

[mcd2498]

I'm starting to think the same thing about it being a BP bat. I'm also starting to think most of these bats the seller is listing are BP bats, considering one of his feedbacks from someone says when questioned the seller said the "Game used" bat was from off season BP....Hmmm...Still searching for any #10 pics. thanks again!

[Aksflyest]

I'm not sold on the idea of this being a BP bat. The pictures look identical to every other bat this seller has sold on Ebay. They all show the same use, with the brightest white ball transfers I've ever seen. I guess he just happens to get BP bats from some of the best in the game ( he has sold a Howard, manny, and sizemore all recently)...and they all seem to strike the ball the same and all took bp with these bright whites? I don't want to be negative but I find these bats to all be highly suspect. I would strongly question this seller about the origins of your bat. The response will likely be he got it from a "trusted" MLB source ( that for some reason only seems to get diablo bats from the players?)....again if it smells like a rat then...

Again this is only my opinion so take it for what it's worth...on the plus side I'm happy to see some tribe collectors in here. I've got a nice small Indians collection that I'm building.

Does anyone know if they have a fanfest?

Keith

[bigtruck260]

I would also try to figure out why the Howard Diablo was sold twice:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130277123276

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130275328111

[mcd2498]

I got a response from the seller saying that he did not know when the bat was used and that he knew only a few of them were made. I too just noticed the same pics of the howard bat sold twice?? Just out of curiosity since im new at collecting, if there really were just a few of these bats ever produced would have decent value to it? Kind of a dumb question but just wondering. Here is the link for the tribe caravan that you asked about keith... http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070109&content_id=1775872&vkey=news_cle&fext=.jsp&c_id=cle
Thanks again for the help guys :D

[mcd2498]

sorry about that link...i just noticed it was from 2007 :p

[mcd2498]

here is the right link for the 09 press tour... http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20090107&content_id=3735497&vkey=pr_cle&fext=.jsp&c_id=cle

[mcd2498]

I took some closeups of the bat tonight but my file sizes are too big to upload. It has plenty of pine tar/ mota stick on it (very dried out) and plenty of ball marks. One thing that stood out most to me is all the seam marks on the bat. Like i said before, I'm new to the bat collecting hobby so I'm not sure what is common and what is not. The only other bat i have is a BP bat with very little use but only one small seam mark on it. Anyone know if this is common or a sign of a knockoff? Any info is appreciated. Thanks again for the help! :D