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The LowBall Weather Station
The Champlain Valley
- Broken clouds
- Temperature: 24.8 °F
- Wind: North-Northwest (340°), 4.6 mph
- Pressure: 30.05 inHg
- Rel. Humidity: 12%
- Visibility: 10 miles
November 21, 2008 - 4:35pm
Wiffle Bat History
Submitted by Hot Rod Beck on May 28, 2008 - 1:29pm.
1954 - Wooden Wiffle King - the original bat made for one year. Rare bat, recently sold for $41 on ebay.
1955-1972 - Wooden Wiffle Bat - the common wooden bat, it came with a single strip of black tape around the handle in the spirit of stick ball. Fairly common on ebay selling between $8-$35.
1959-1974 - Original Plastic Bat - simply has the words "Official Wiffle Bat" in block letters on the barrel and no grip on the handle.
1975 - Black Plastic Bat - produced for one year only due to the oil crisis.
1976-1982 - Generation 2 Yellow Plastic Bat - same as the original except the rough (little dots) grip was added. Mint bat sold for $72 on ebay, still in the packaging.
1983-1991 - Generation 3 Yellow Plastic Bat - same as gen 2 except the words "Made in the USA" were added just below the logo. LowBall acquired one bat from the Beck archives and one from Lincoln yard sale for a grand total of $0.
1992 - Present - Generation 4 Yellow Plastic Bat - the current version with the bubble lettered logo as opposed to block letters.
With yard saling in full swing, I believe it is best for a quick overview of the wiffle bat timeline. I have only included the official bats produced by Wiffle. There are a bunch of authorized wiffle bats, you can check out the full bat history at www.wiffleballusa.com. That is where the bulk of my information came from.
1954 - Wooden Wiffle King - the original bat made for one year. Rare bat, recently sold for $41 on ebay.
1955-1972 - Wooden Wiffle Bat - the common wooden bat, it came with a single strip of black tape around the handle in the spirit of stick ball. Fairly common on ebay selling between $8-$35.
1959-1974 - Original Plastic Bat - simply has the words "Official Wiffle Bat" in block letters on the barrel and no grip on the handle.
1975 - Black Plastic Bat - produced for one year only due to the oil crisis.
1976-1982 - Generation 2 Yellow Plastic Bat - same as the original except the rough (little dots) grip was added. Mint bat sold for $72 on ebay, still in the packaging.
1983-1991 - Generation 3 Yellow Plastic Bat - same as gen 2 except the words "Made in the USA" were added just below the logo. LowBall acquired one bat from the Beck archives and one from Lincoln yard sale for a grand total of $0.
1992 - Present - Generation 4 Yellow Plastic Bat - the current version with the bubble lettered logo as opposed to block letters.