Lets See Your Ivan 'pudge' Rodriguez Bats

[tigerdale]

In the world of Game Used material, sometimes you are lucky enough to encounter a player collector with the integrity and value to our hobby that mimics their players contribution to the sport.

If he owned a collection of Pudge's game used material unrivaled by Ivan himself, Dale's value to this hobby would eclipse it. As a long time player collector at (seemingly) the end of my players career, I can only hope to be considered the TigerDale of Salo material.

Thank you so much, That was very kind of you to say!!

[cjclong]

Dale has a great collection! I'm envious because I have a Pudge bat from every team he played with except the Astros. I actually do have an LVS that was photo matched to a bat he used with the Astros, but it doesn't have the team name on the barrel. Saw what we thought was his last game with the Rangers in 2002 (was quoted in the Ft Worth paper the next day when a reporter happened to stop me because I was wearing a Pudge jersey) and was at the 2003 sixth game of the WS when at Yankee Stadium when he finally won a Championship when the Rangers stupidly sent him packing the year before because they thought he was over the hill. By pure luck was at the game where he broke the record for most game caught by a catcher and plan to be at the Rangers game tomorrow when he officially retires. I'm glad the Rangers are honoring him. Unlike a lot of players he came up with the Rangers and tried to stay with them. He gave the Rangers a home team discount in the middle 90's so they could re-sign him. Then they let him go in 2002. Career wise that was the best thing that could have happened to him because he won a World Series with the Marlins the next year and an American League championship and WS appearance with the Tigers several years later while the Rangers were at or near the bottom of the league. So its fitting they honor him now.

[tigerdale]

I thought this was cool....heres Ivans 'signature plaque' that is in the Louisville Slugger museum & has the date he signed his contract w/ Louisville....

[tigerdale]

nine 2006 post season used & issued bats from pudge.....

[Dach0sen0ne]

nine 2006 post season used & issued bats from pudge.....

Looks like you have some to spare!

[DJaeger22]

Awesome collection Dale!

[rogergoochman]

Pudge experts possible help?? Im trying to narrow down what year Pudge used this. I went through 35 pages, some 2000 photos on Getty images and couldnt find him using any XBAT, alot of his classic black LVS, a few natural LVS and some 2tone Marucci. Also emailed XBAT and got no response. Any help?

[tigerdale]

Hi, I dont have handy the variations of the Xbat trademark to narrow it down that way. Looking at the bat, it has the tigers bat weight code marked on both ends, so that puts it in the 2004 to 2008 time frame (when pudge was in Detroit). Also, the sticker on the knob in the photo you sent me is ASI. I believe ASI became Elite in 2006 (I have a pudge 2006 bat w/ an elite sticker). So, to me, this narrows the bat down to a 2004 or 2005 timeframe. I have seen pudge use Xbat before. He was a big Louisville guy, but that being said.....I think I have seen a pudge bat in just about every bat brand out there. I hope this helps some.

[rogergoochman]

This definatly helps! Narrows my search in half Dale. Your awesome!!

[tigerdale]

Ive gone out & looked at a few old 2004 photos & it looked like in 2004 Xbat had its older trademark...so maybe your bat has a good chance to be a 2005...that would be my best guess........