WW2 American Baseball Bat

[Spitace41]

I all. I just thought I would share with you this Baseball bat that is in my Grandfather's possession. During the War he lived in Oxford. On the site of what is now the Churchill hospital was an American army camp. A friend of his with a reputation for acquiring things often spent time around the camp fence asking for things. On one occasion a soldier threw two baseball bats over the fence. My grandfather was offered one and his friend kept the other.

As you can see the bat itself is a Louisville Slugger and although it has a couple of cracks in it, is a great piece of history. Wonder where the Yanks who owned it ended up?

Thanks for looking.

[big ned]

Nice bat! The 'TRADE MARK REG.' below the outside of the oval is proof positive of a 1940's made bat, the 'Tempered' (as in flame tempered) logo means that the bat is just below the top quality store bought bats that were marked 'Powerized'. The 35" stamp on the knob is the length of the bat. The rarest types were 36" or, to a lesser extent 33".

Many of these bats were supplied to U.S. forces by Hillerich & Bradsby during the war (they also produced M1 stocks, tank pins and billy clubs) and are generally marked to which service or training school. There appears to be something stamped above the makers name ( 43 A.F. ??) which may possibly be the branch of service and year date, though i'm not certain of this.

These are rather collectible in fairly good condition as long as they haven't been split or repaired.

Regards, Ned.

[Spitace41]

Cheers Ned, I can always rely on you for knowledge. Unfortunatly this bat has been both split and repaired. It was split when my grandfather got it and his dad taped it up (I have to resist the urge to take off the 70 year old tape to see if there is a name or something underneath but he can't remember there being one). The marking is 43 J. F. I had no idea these could be unit marked so thanks for that.

[big ned]

Unfortunately I have given you duff 'gen, the 43 J.F. is actually the model type, the initials maybe a player's who the model was named after. For it to be forces issued it would just of had 'U.S' stamped on the barrel.

Sorry about that!

Regards, Ned.

[Spitace41]

Ah ok then. At least with the story behind it I can guarantee that it was used by yank troops during the War.

[big ned]

That's what you call a bat...... I wish Gray-Nicolls would do the same over here!