Worth Pro Bats - would love to see, I helped make them.

[oldworth]

Hello,

I would love to see pictures of your old Worth pro baseball bats, regardless of who's they were. My mom was the supervisor of the finishing department there, and I worked there throughout high school and during breaks from college. It was a significant part of my life for many years. I had a hand in making and finishing quite a few myself. Of course I have quite a few, but I just ran into a few on the net, and it brought back a lot of memories.

If anyone has questions about them or how they were made, I'll try my best to answer them.

[harpt]

I have a couple...Rob Deer and Charlie Moore. I really like them. Below is a picture of the Rob Deer.

[oldworth]

I really liked the bigger logos. Everyone started making them bigger from what I heard, to be seen on TV, but MLB issued size restrictions.

[jon_8_us]

Here is pics of my incoming Sheffield rookie bat from 1988:

[jon_8_us]

I'll post better ones when i can take the pictures
jon

[oldworth]

It's kindof odd seeing them. I look at them and see the people who did each part of them. All were made by a small group of people - no more than a dozen.

[thomecollector]

Here's one of my Thome bats. I have only seen 2 of these Worth bats used by Thome. The other one was cracked.:eek:

[oldworth]

The name looks familiar to me. A ton of players ordered bats from different manufacturers and may never have used them outside of batting practice. I remember looking on baseball cards for our bars and being disappointed when I would see a player I knew we made bats for using a different brand in all the pics.

The rarest bat I remember making was Michael Jordan's bat. As far as I know, it was the only Wilson branded pro bat ever made. (All Wilson bats were made by Worth)

[metsbats]

Worth bats were very popular with members of the 86 Mets.

I have 3 and in addition to these guys i know the following players used Worth bats too

Dykstra
Foster
Staub
Sisk
Teufel

-David

[woodbat]

Hi,
I have been to the Worth factory in Tullahoma a couple times. There was a gal that, I believe worked in sales, and I used to send her all the cards showing Worth bats used by major league players. Can't remember her name though, this was probably in the late 80's--early 90's. But I sent her a lot of cards. She said she was going to make a display of them at the office. It was about the time you all were thinking about getting got out of the wooden bat business and going to aluminum bats. Was also fascinated watching the gals lacing the softballs...
I only collect Cardinal bats, and have a game Worth bat of Jose Cruz, Randy Hunt, Bryn Smith, and John Tudor.
There was a very interesting article by Tim Lee in the SCD May 17, 1996-page 160-161 on Worth bats. Might be helpful if you had access to ordering and shipping records to share with other folks, could help in dating a bat. I would also be glad to make you a copy of this article..
If you want any photos of the above four bats, email me at woodbat@bellsouth.net and will be glad to email photos to you.
Don Bell
Paris, TN 38242-0446

[TNTtoys]

I have 2 WORTH bats from members of the 1986 Mets team - Lenny Dykstra and Tim Teufel. When I can manage to swipe the digital camera from my wife, I'll take a couple of quick photos for you...

[oldworth]

Woodbat - there were displays of ballcards featuring Worth bats both in the bat office and I believe over in Parish Hall at the ball plant. My guess as to the lady you remember would be Wanda - red headed lady. Other than her, it could be a number of others.

I clearly can picture seeing Jose Cruz bats.

As far as ordering and shipping records, I have no idea where they are. I would guess boxed up in the abandoned plant office. I do remember handwritten logs of orders filled at the lathe. As for other paperwork, I guess someone coded orders into the computer and recorded shipments. The company sold out to Rawlings, etc. and they shut down everything in Tullahoma and moved it to China.

As far as changing - it never happened. There was an aluminum plant on the property since the 70's I guess (could have been a converted hanger), and they built a second one probably in the 80's. The wood bats were there for a long long time in a totally separate building which used to be a WWII aircraft hanger. They closed it up, but had always been making the aluminums.

As far as dating a bat, you can only guess the period in most cases from the labeling. Even with the records, the only way to date a bat would be if the player only ordered once or twice, or if they only ordered a limited number of a certain color. Otherwise, orders were run repeatedly throughout the years.

Metsbats: I clearly remember seeing Mookie Wilson and Ray Knight bats. Somehow or another I wound up getting a signed 8x10 of Greg Jeffries through the company, even though I wasn't really a fan. My mom just bright it home to me.

TNT: I remember seeing Lenny Dykstra and Tim Teufel names as well. Most of the ones I can remember I most likely saw a number of times in there.

[oldworth]

The machine used to brand the Handcrafted, name and model was ancient. I had removable plates aboust the size of a postcard with removable letters, and bars for Handcrafted and model. The handcrafted and model should be the same on almost every bat - they may have been replaced once.

It had a interchangeable roll of colored plastic on it about the size of toilet paper that was placed between the bat and the stamp that was heated. The other end hung free. You stepped on the petal, it lowered the plate on the bat and rolled it across it leaving invisible film on the plastic where the letter were removed. It took a lot of setup pieces to adjust it to make all the letters come out.

Also, up until about 1990ish, the stripes were done by a little 70yr old lady by hand with a paint brush. About that time, they got her a roller paint applier. You can see the difference as the roller left mild rib marks in the stripes.

As for knob markings, they can vary a lot in spacing and lining up, etc. Each number or letter was done one at a time with an individual stamp. The bats were lined up in a rack and each one was hit with a hammer.

Something I would love to know what happened to was the old bat collection they had locked up in a storage building. They had original, game used bats from hundreds of old players like Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth. My jaw dropped the first time I went in there. I never even knew they had them in there, it was just a locked old storage building for junk I thought. I wouldn't doubt if they are still in there since they just closed the doors on the place and moved to China.

[oldworth]

The Jim Thome bat was striped manually with the roller applicator by the little old lady (most likely, but could have been me or a couple of others). The larger logo'd bats would most likely have been done by her, but with a paint brush.

[MSpecht]

Gregg Jefferies

[ironmanfan]

OldWorth..While you probably wouldn't want to admit a hand in making this particular bat (due to the name misspelling), I still think it's a neat piece of lumber. It was used by Billy Rip during Spring Training 1987 (I have several photos of Billy using this Worth model with the misspelling)

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k172/whhp72/ebay011-1.jpg

[TNTtoys]

Here are my two, as promised... enjoy!!

[JasonM33]

As many of you know Jose Canseco is my favorite player and the only guy that I collect. He used Worth bats early in his career. This is one I picked up recently and I think it's beautiful.

-Jason M

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/IpreferKeaton/misc/1988Worthgamer2.jpg

[big10champ]

I have two Randy Bush models, a Junior Ortiz, and a Dan Gladden. It appears the Dan Gladden, Gladden scracked off the black on the handle and made his own two-tone gamer. They are nice pieces to add something different between all of the Louisville Sluggers.

[oldworth]

I actually have a Canseco bat. It never made it into his hands, but I prize it just the same. He was my favorite back then. As far as I know, all of his from Worth were unfinished.

[metsbats]

OldWorth

Can you please comment on the two different labeling we are seeing here on all these bats? I believe the labeling with the outlined "WORTH" and no "W" on the top of this lettering are bats prior to 1987 and the bats with the darken in "WORTH" and "W" on top of the name are bats made 1987 to 1990.

Is this right?

Thanks
David

[JasonM33]

I actually have a Canseco bat. It never made it into his hands, but I prize it just the same. He was my favorite back then. As far as I know, all of his from Worth were unfinished.

That's awesome. I love those unfinished Canseco Worth bats. Just gorgeous. Probably my favorite of all the bats he used. You should put a pic of yours up. There a few Canseco fans on this forum.

Cheers

-Jason M

[oldworth]

The only definite I can give about the solid and outlined logos is that I know without question they were solid in 1988. My guess is the transition occurred in 1987. If you want proof, go look at Canseco's 40-40 bat. It's solid and he used it in 1988. By 1992 when I started working there myself in high school, they had changed just changed to the small logo. I could ask my mom, but its hard for her to remember exact years, only rough estimates.


As for my Canseco bat, I'll post pics, but it will be in September when I go back to visit my parents. I also have a couple signed bats, but I forget who is on them. No one especially great.

I also have cool Bushwhacker and George Bush model bats with Hussein tied up on the barrel.

[harpt]

The following site gives this info...though I have no idea if the info is accurate (I believe it to be).

http://www.boombats.com/sinfo.htm

[Nnunnari]

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/8735/l1000264ch9.th.jpg (http://img517.imageshack.us/my.php?image=l1000264ch9.jpg)

Do you remember seeing the Sheffield bats that said "Shep Dogg"?

[JasonM33]

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/8735/l1000264ch9.th.jpg (http://img517.imageshack.us/my.php?image=l1000264ch9.jpg)

Do you remember seeing the Sheffield bats that said "Shep Dogg"?

Whoa! I never saw one of those.

-Jason M

[oldworth]

I wasn't there when they were made. I do not recall seeing any Sheffield bats while I was there. But I am certain my mom had a hand in some part of finishing it.

[oldworth]

Oh, the the flame treating of the bats was kinda cool. It was literally a ring of fire. Just gas. You slid the bat in for all of about 1 second in and 1 second out and it flamed treated the grains.

[metsbats]

Thanks for the response on the labeling oldworth.

I'm surprise no one has not posted a Fred McGriff Worth.

Crime Dog was a big Worth bat user.

David

[Nnunnari]

Here are three of my favorite Worth bats, a rookie Sheffield gamer, an early Canseco (finished) does anybody know the labeling period of this Canseco? and a two tone Thomas. I did have a really nice McGriff Worth which I unfortunately sold.



http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/1522/l1000327kw2.th.jpg (http://img223.imageshack.us/my.php?image=l1000327kw2.jpg)

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8540/l1000328io5.th.jpg (http://img87.imageshack.us/my.php?image=l1000328io5.jpg)

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/7938/l1000330qy7.th.jpg (http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=l1000330qy7.jpg)

[JasonM33]

That looks like a 1986 to 1987 Canseco Worth bat. I'm no expert but that's just what I've seen in my days a super fan. He he. In 1988 to 1989 he seemed to used the Worth bat's with the text filled in. I think they then went to the smaller logo in 1990 and so on.

-Jason M

[oldworth]

My guess is that the Canseco was one of his very first. My mom cannot even remember him taking a finished bat, so it must have been before he was famous enough to take note of.

I very well could have had a hand in the making of that Frank Thomas bat - we made a ton for him and Fred McGriff. A lot of Cecil Fielder bats as well. So many names ... so long ago.

My fav profile was Andre Dawson's I believe.

[Nnunnari]

Thanks for the info OldWorth- I found Canseco's '86 Donruss rookie card which shows him holding 4 Worth's with the same labeling as mine, they appear to be finished.