Josh Hamilton Bat

[Nnunnari]

Anybody been watching the Angels/Rangers series? I noticed Hamilton using what looks like a vintage H&B Louisville. Anybody got any info on this?

Nick

[Fnazxc0114]

he has been using natural LS most of the season with the old hiclkory's thrown in from what i have noticed.

[BMH]

What do you mean by vintage? We've switched his bats from burn brand to foil brand to hopefully stop the cracking through the center brand.

[cjclong]

Is the Louisville Slugger he is using this year the same model that he used in the home run derby last year?

[BMH]

Yes, the C353

[Nnunnari]

I paused the game during a close-up of him at bat Saturday and he was swinging what appeared to be a vintage H&B bat. It had the Hillerich & Bradsby center brand, I couldn't make out the signature on the barrel. There was only "Genuine" stamped above the signature.
I can't find a picture of him from saturday or sunday, but if you watch this sac fly video, he's swinging it.

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=4608055&c_id=mlb

[Nnunnari]

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20090517/capt.1b49baa9b3534c928bd387cce1250314.angels_range rs_baseball_arl107.jpg AP
2009-05-16

[shoremen44]

Looks like an old H&B logo to me... I didnt watch the whole game to see if there was a closer look... but this look is pretty good.

gotta love MLB TV

[shoremen44]

here's some more looks

[cordovacollector]

Fascinating!

[yanks12025]

Looks like that bat dates from the late 1960's to early 1970's.

Brian,
You guys should go back to the old barrel brands with Hillerich & Bradsby if your allowed to.

[5kRunner]

That is an interesting bat.

I thought I remembered Brian posting once that even if a player requested the old label, they would not do it. Maybe I read it wrong, and he posted they would do it. Hmm.......

Anyway, as Nnunnari posted before, not only is it the old lablel; but the model number isn't on the barrel either.

Any chance Josh got his hands on an used bat from the 70's and thought he'd try it? Is that against the rules?

Whose signature is on the bat? Anyone familar with Hamilton's sig?

I can't wait to see Brian's take on this bat.

[Nnunnari]

It looks like he picked up an old bat (maybe one of the coach's bats from their playing days) and loved the feel of it and went ahead and used it. I wonder if this is allowed by MLB?
I noticed right away that his bat appeared to have a vintage look to it.

Nick

[shoremen44]

I cant wait to hear the results of this one... if you watch his at bats the bat totally has the vintage look to it... the pictures I captured dont do it justice

[5kRunner]

My post was supposed to say:

"Any chance Josh got his hands on an unused bat from the 70's and thought he'd try it?"

Stupid no edit function. :p

[BMH]

I can honestly say...I have no idea.

[BMH]

They are autograph bats for Joe Macko

[BMH]

Ok, that might be wrong too...

We've made Joe one Autograph bat in 1996-1997. The rest were gamers from when he played. So, most likely it was a gamer.

[shoremen44]

and the mystery continues

[cjclong]

I guess my eyes are not good enough to read the signature on the barrel, is it Joe Macho?

[cjclong]

Guess I can't read typing either. Joe Macko?

[bigtruck260]

Joe Macko would make sense. Here is my guess...

Macko has been honored for his 60 years of service in baseball...and he is a legendary clubbie for Texas. Macko is showing the kid some of his memorabilia and Hamilton says - "Hey Mack - this bat feels great, I think I'll use it in the game tonight..."

Makes sense - and the umps are probably more concerned with the new maple rules, so a blonde ash bat doesn't raise flags (maybe the umps were asked about it before the game?).

Just a thought. If that's the case, Hamilton just won me over again. His story is so good - that something like this is just sprinkles on my cupcake.:confused:

[BMH]

Yeah, Charlotte said we only made him one souvie bat. It was signed by the whole team back in 97. So, he had to be swinging one of his old gamers.

On a side note, one of my workers is a huge Hamilton fan. He made up some of his bats and sent them to him to sign. He liked them better than the gamers we sent him so he sent two of the gamers back and kept the souvies to use.

[cjclong]

I would think as long as a bat matches major league size specifications, as this one obviously did, there would be no trouble using it. ("Wonder Boy" in The Natural). I would think you could use a Ruth, Gehrig or DiMaggio bat as long as they were not out side the size limits. I know they would not let David Wells wear babe Ruth's cap, but that was because the style of cap had changed and it did not conform to the uniform currently worn.

[5kRunner]

I think Hamilton is my favorite player now. I love rooting for this guy. I agree with Dave, stories like this just add to his great story and personality.

cjclong,
There is a MLB "approved manufacturers" list or something. Brian would know more. Of course, H&B is on it already. But, if someone made a "Wonderboy", I don't think they would be allowed to use it in a game whether it met league specs or not.

[cjclong]

I was sort of joking with "Wonder Boy", but since H&B is approved I can't see them not letting mlb not letting him use the bat. I don't think there are any regs about using the bat of a player who has retired whether it was one year ago or forty. And we know players use other players bat all the time.

[ironmanfan]

Some of the younger guys may not realize that Joe Macko (long time equipment manager of the Rangers) had a son named Steve that played for a couple years with the Cubs who passed away tragically in his late 20's....