Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

I stopped at a garage sale Thursday and asked the couple if they had any baseball gloves or bats for sale. She told me she had 5 bats that she believed were from the 1920's, with writing in pencil that she could not make out. She was not offering them for sale because she didn't know what they were or what to ask. I asked if I could see them and she went and got them. My first thought was that they were homemade because you could see the lathe circle on each end of the bat. Only one of the bats had a mfg, mark (Hillerich & Bradsby), the others were unmarked. All the bats had some thick, hard to read writing on them. Maybr grease pencil. There were some dates (1926) and other writing but I would need a lot more time to try and decipher them if possile. She thanked me for my interest and I really couldn't tell her what she should be asking because I didn't know what they were. I've heard the term side written bat, but I never knew what it meant. After looking online, I'm thinking that this is what she has. Since these bats are so hard to read, do they have any value? I'm thinking of going back tomorrow to see if I can provide her with more information and maybe persuade her to sell. Any suggestions?
Thanks.

Scott

Scott
They sound sidewritten. I have some up on ebay under Mghpro. If they dont have a makers mark, just the side writting, there is not a lot of value unless you can read it and it belongs to a pro player.
Matt

Side written bats are those that were used by H&B as templates for making bats for the –players. If you found a bat you liked you could send it to H&B and have similar bats made. They would then mark your name on the bat and keep it as part of their record.