Not as much information as presented in the past, but if I end up waiting to have something as substantial as my last Kren article, it might be a while. I am into Phase II of my project and this involves finding evidence of players who may have used Kren bats. While I was at Cooperstown, I found a couple things I thought interesting. The first was a picture of Frankie Frisch with a Kren bat which is shown here.
Next is a photo provided by Tim Byington of his Joe Cronin bat with a mailing label showing the bat was sent to Kren’s to have a model made from it.
At Cooperstown, I also found a copy of postcard that was sent from Honus Wagner to Joseph Kren in 1951 that strongly suggests, by Wagner’s own admission, that he was a user of the Kren line at some point in time. This too is pictured for your reference.
I have built a spreadsheet, and with the help of veteran collector Marcus Sevier, have information on over 100 players and 131 total player entries. This information is sorted by:
Player
Source (bat, catalog, photograph, contemporary reference etc…)
Length
Weight
Model
Markings
Provider of the Information
Other Comments
These three examples above highlight the need to consider and search for a wide variety of sources when doing research along these lines.
Like I said, not a full article, but some nice images and thoughts I felt were worth sharing.
As always, collect what you enjoy and enjoy what you collect.
Dave Grob
For questions or comments on this article, please feel free to drop me a line at DaveGrob1@aol.com