Does anyone know the year that louisville first made available Maple bats for the Major leagues ??

Ray - Louisville Slugger began making maple bats for Major League players 2 1/2 years ago. I believe they added the M logo next to the trademark in 2004 for the maple bats.

Thanks very much for the info.

I can't say with certainty what year H&B started making maple bats for MLB use, but the earliest order I can find is for Mike Matheny on August 22, 2000.

Until 2004, maple bats were labeled and branded just like ash bats. In 2004, H&B started putting the maple leaf logo on the reverse and either printing the trademark (Select Maple) or using a sticker (M9 Rock Hard Maple). 2004 also is when they started foil-stamping or laser etching the barrel instead of branding.

Jeff
http://www.birdbats.com

I just checked with Louisville Slugger. 2003 is what the Louisville Slugger museum just emailed me as when their Maple bats were used in a MLB game. They could certainly be wrong.

museum@slugger.com is their email address