Brooklyn fans dubbed Paul Waner “Big Poison” to differentiate him from his nearly identical but slightly smaller brother Lloyd who was called “Little Poison” - “poison” being Brooklynese for “person”, as in “dat big poison hit another home run off our bums today”. While the Yankees had their “Murderer’s Row” of Ruth and Gehrig, the Pirates of the same era had their own killer line up headed by Paul Waner. In 1928-29, the years this bat dates to, Waner hit a combined .352 and led the National League in runs and doubles in 1928. When he retired in 1945, his lifetime average was .333 and he was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1953.

     While the Hillerich & Bradsby Louisville Slugger is the bat most often associated with the game’s best hitters, in the late 1920s and early 1930s, another bat company, the Hanna Manufacturing Company of Athens, Georgia, stole the best players away from the Louisville bat maker. While ordering records from the Hanna company do not exist as they do for Hillerich & Bradsby, existing catalogs show that the store model Paul Waner bats were given the designation “model 16”. The model 4 was Waner’s professional model. In addition, this bat’s specs of 35” and 44.9oz is consistent with Waner’s records for bats ordered from Hillerich & Bradsby during this same time period.

     This offered Hanna model 4 bat is un-cracked and shows excellent use. Several ball marks can be seen on the right and left barrel. The handle had been taped in a spiral pattern a one time and has since been removed. A small piece is missing from the knob and the length “35” is stamped into the knob end. An early game used bat from one of the greatest hitters in the history of the Pirates franchise. This bat comes with a LOA from PSA/DNA (1B14257) for the game use and has been graded a solid GU 8.5.

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