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The Mc-44 is a bat designed by Jack
McGrath who was a long time Vice
President of marketing & public
relations for Louisville Slugger. The bat
design features a wide barrel with a
tapered handle. It
had been suggested in the past that the bat was
made for Willie McCovey but other than speculation
that the "Mc" stood for McCovey,
and he did wear uniform number 44,
there is no truth to this.
Variations of the bat were eventually
used by 50 other players.
Jack McGrath designed the bat
about a month before the 1963 World
Series. The Dodgers' Tommy Davis was
the first Major League player to try it
out, and used it to hit .400 in a sweep
of the New York Yankees. Players that
have used the Mc44 bat in a Major
League game include: Tom Tresh, Don
Drysdale, Pedro Gonzalez, Willie
McCovey, Brooks
Robinson, Ken Harrelson, Steve Garvey,
Reggie Jackson, Don Baylor, and Keith
Hernandez.
This 250 "Air Seasoned" store model bat pictured above, was
introduced to the market in 1966. It
was a Semi-signature model bat that
also featured "Official Mc
44, ** Model **" on the barrel. Other
store models include: both "Powerized"
and Flame Tempered" 125 "Genuine Mc44," 180 "Grand slam Mc 44"
and 88 Leaguer. The catalog No. 250
bats were dated to 1966, and both the
88, & 180 were sold before 1971, have
the Mc44 in block letters. The 125,
Mc44 was first made available in the
1971. This is when they started the
cursive Mc44 logo. It was then treated
as a signature model. The Mc44 store
model bats were not available in player
autograph models. It had it's own
identity as stated in
the Louisville Slugger trade catalog...
"*125 Mc44 - The 125 Mc44 is a distinctive model that,
with its Variations, has proven so
popular with professional batters that
we couldn't tie it down to one
autograph. It will be known as the
'Mc44-the sluggers' Slugger'"
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