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scottanservitz
08-06-2007, 12:55 PM
Hello forum members. I recently purchased Vince Malta's new book at the National this past weekend. I absolutely cannot put this book down. Great information and pictures. I do have a question. Maybe two. I own a 1990 C271 George Brett bat that measures 34.25 inches and 32 ounces and is cupped. While looking through Malta's book I see that Brett ordered 33in and 32.5 oz. bats with no finish, 34 in and 32.5oz. no finish to baseball Promotional, and lastly 34 inch 32 and 32.5 no finish cupped. Am I to understand that any promotional bats in 1990 were uncupped C271 bats that were 34 inches and 32.5 ounces? If it is cupped and has the above measurements it was ordered by Brett for his personal use? And my next question is what is the difference between Promotional orders and Miscellaneous orders? And a last question, where are indexed bats listed or is it Miscellaneous orders? I hate to sound stupid as I have been doing this for awhile, but I never had access to player charts before and these can be somewhat difficult to decipher. Thanks for any and all help.
Scott

MSpecht
08-07-2007, 01:33 AM
Hi Scott--

I hope you enjoyed the National as much as you are obviously enjoying the book. Here are some responses to your questions:

The Brett 1990 C271 -- 34.25 inch / 32 oz / cupped end: Leaving the chart and going directly to Brett's records, the bat you describe could be recorded as either 34 inches or 34.5 inches in the records. The majority of strictly promotional C271 Brett bats that year were uncupped... However, there were promotional orders that were also cupped. For instance, on 11/3/90 the K C Royals ordered 120 cupped brett C271 unfinished 34.5 inch bats ...they were ordered with no designated weight, which likely indicates that they were for some Royals promotional event.

Remember, the bats that appear on the player charts only include the bats that were shipped specifically for the player's personal professional use... strictly promotional bats do not appear on the charts. If a sprcific bat -- model / length / weight / and finish does not appear in the chart, there is no documented evidence that the player used that specific combination within the labeling period.

Baseball Promotional and Baseball Miscellaneous -- The majority of orders catagorized in this manner are clearly for some purpose other than the player's personal professional use. The defining characteristic in the book is usually weight -- if the bat is ordered and shipped without a specific weight, appearing in the records as 0.0 ounces, it is presumed to be for some purpose other than the players professional use, and is not recorded in the chart. If the order is shipped with a specific designated weight, it is presumed to be for the player's professional use and is included in the chart. There is no common ground among such orders that are shipped to either BB Miscell or BB Promotions. Either can be shipments of 1 bat or 125 or more bats. These somewhat catch-all categories can include, for the players actual use, the bats shipped to each player for the All-Star game (usually 2 bats shipped a week or so before the game) or the bats shipped to players for post season tours such as Japan, and post season bats. Again, the identifying factor is that the bat is shuipped with a specific ordered weight. On the other hand, either of the two categories may include great numbers of bats to be given out by Major League Baseball at some banquet-type event or whatever. Remember, these types of records only were added to the player's records when the system became computerized in 1981... By the way, Brett has sixteen pages of computerized records between 1981 and 1994 at 22 shipments per page.

Team Index bats are not included on the charts. Those orders are specific to the team, not the player whose name appears on the bat,m and sre not shown on the player's individual H & B records. Often, the team order may be fairly non-specific such as "240 bats...Assorted models / lengths between 34 in - 36 in / weights between 31 oz / 34 oz." In those instances, the team will be shipped a wide variety of bats that usually have their own H & B contract players names (signature) on them, most often of the player's Pro Stock Model. Could such bats happen to be of the same model / length / weight that the player happened to also order that labeling period ? Yes, however other models, inckuding some the player never ordered in his career, could show up as well. Be sure to read Jim Caravello's current posts under a recent "Team Index bats" thread, plus use the search feature with key words "index bats" to find a number of posts over the last two years addressing the topic.

I hope this helps a little -- any additional or more specific information to the above is always welcome.

Mike Jackitout7@aol.com

scottanservitz
08-07-2007, 07:45 AM
Mike,
As always, thanks a lot. I am constantly learning this hobby and enjoy each and every second of it. The information you provided is excellent. I wish I could have said hello at the National. I saw Jim but everyone else was talking to someone. Hopefully next year.
Scott