June 30, 1997 Vladimir Guerrero game used two tone LVS C243 bat given to me after breaking it during BP prior to his first game in Toronto (prior to career game #48).
Early career bat features uniform number "27" marked on the knob, pine tar along the handle and extended into the center brand area. The bat shows extensive grain separation throughout the barrel.
The cracked bat is intact, crack runs through the barrel and was given to me standing over the Blue Jays dugout. The bat originally had white tape around the barrel (tape is put on to help prevent the grains from flaking/separating). The tape was immediately removed to reveal Vlad’s name and direct ball marks are present under the taped area.
I suspect, but cannot substantiate, he converted game bats to BP to prolong the life of the bat. The team was on its 5th game of an 8-game road trip he likely didn’t bring many bats with him, especially very early in his career while making the league minimum $150k and taping his bats. Side note: Vlad Jr. uses game bats during BP, finding a good Vlad Jr bat that makes it more than 2-4 games is tough to find.
Input welcomed on early career Vlad Sr. bat usage/behaviour.
JaysFan
Great story. I don't know much about his early career habits other than he would seem to shuffle through bats frequently, there are more uncracked bats from his Expos days. He didn't break as many ash bats early on as he did the maple bats while in Anaheim. He almost always had his #27 on the knob with various amounts of pine tar. He also shared bats with his brother Wilton at times, so you need to be cautious of that. I have seen "Guerrero" "V. Guerrero" and "Vladimir Guerrero" on his early bats. Typically, C271, M110 and C243. Sometimes T141.
Vlad broke many bats and frequently gifted them to friends or had family members/friends sell the bats. Typically, Vlad would autograph a gamer before giving it away. Guerrero had notriousy bad hand writing, look for this writing on any inscriptions and the numbering on the knob. Vlad was fairly consistent with numbering his knobs although examples have been seen with no number. The pine tar application really picked up in Anaheim. Vlad also seemed to really favor the hickory or brown bats while in Anaheim. He swung blonde and black bats in Montreal and back to some blonde bats in Texas and Baltimore.
Important to note that Vlad would frequently swap out bats. Like Manny Ramirez, Vlad could use 2-3 different bats in the same game. When trying to photo match Vlad bats, make sure to check every at bat and multiple games, he did not use bats continously until they cracked although he did typically use them until they eventually broke. Also note, I have not seen photos of Vlad using taped handles after Montreal, these were typically BP bats or used by teammates. Even in Montreal, he rarely used taped handles. Bartolo Colon, Orlando Cabrera, Juan Rivera and Jose Molina were all known to ferquently use his bats- Colon and Cabrera would tape the handles. Vlad bats have a particular looking pine tar pattern along the handle, and deep seam marks across all sides of the barrel.
Ideal Gamer: '04 LVS or Sam (MVP), Any HR inscribed bat.
Difficulty: 1 Quality Gamer: 2 Ideal Gamer: 3.5
Popularity/Demand: 3.5, trending up. MVP, HOFer, Played in a WS. Vlad was such a fun player to watch, one of a kind approach at the plate and his bats are full of character. Guerrero always played in small markets however and never reached 500 HR's, he also spoke very little English which may have hurt his marketability. Nonetheless, a tremendously popular player.