[Raleigh]

I found this photo of Joe Dimaggio holding what looks like a 46-350 in a book about the 1949 American League Pennant race between the Yankees and Red Sox. The book was The Summer of '49 by David Halberstam.

[Image: http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w539...99cba3.jpg]

For fans or OTR, swing jazz, and baseball here is a link to a really silly but enjoyable song about Joltin' Joe, performed by Les Brown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q6odQuCxFU

[TimC]

Cool, and the handle isn't broke!

[Chuck Schwark]

Very new 46-350. Nice.

[Raleigh]

Those handles had a steel strap sewn between the two pieces of leather to support the weight. No joke. You can feel it with a magnet. It needed it, too. My bathroom scale says the radio with battery weighs 14 1/4 pounds. The battery alone was 5 1/2 pounds.

[TA Forbes]

Back when the Yanks were a force t be reckoned with.

Little known fact: Joe did not like to sign things, grudgingly did balls, and rarely did bats.

When I was in a prolonged stay at the hospital many years ago, one of the Docs there was a major baseball fan. When he found out that I played in the minors 3 yrs between tours in USMC, he came to my room with his collection of cards, balls, and bats. He had a rarer than hens teeth genuine Joe DiMaggio signed bat. He had an amazing collection that was directly responsible for me being moved to a single-patient room in spinal-cord injury rehab because the Doc and I stayed up yapping about baseball until 4AM, keeping my roomate up nearly the entire time.

[WyTex]

Couldn't it be a 49-607 given the year of the photo? I have this model and it's strap doesn't seem to have the metal inside.

[vinzer]

My 49-607 has the metal strap inside the handle.

[Radioroslyn]

Hey John
Tnx for the link enjoyed it!
Terry

[Raleigh]

From Ron's photo gallery, it looks like the 48-360 and 49-607 have distinct alligator patterns on the cover, while the 46-350 has something like a leather pattern and texture printed on the fabric. I'm not an expert, but the texture looks very much like my 46-350. I have two of them, and they are much the same.

It is possible that Philco eliminated the steel strap at some point as a cost reduction. Maybe that's why yours doesn't have metal inside the handle, Paul. Philco often made mid-year cost reductions. I have two 46-350 cabinets with a couple of substantial differences that were probably mid-year cost-saving measures. Perhaps the same thing happened in the 1949 Philco season.

Wow, great story, Mr. Forbes. Who did you play for in the minors? What position? I often listen to the Bulls on my old radios. I used to like the Mudcats, too, but they don't seem to broadcast anymore. I think you can still hear them on the internet, but I never do.