Rick,  I had the same problem with an old (late 1920) upright that I am
working on.  I too did not want to mess with trying to remove the
hammer shaft and try to put a new one in.

My solution was to purchase from the Player Piano Co. snap on bridle
straps (I had about 48 that needed replacing so I did them all).  I
removed the action from the piano and using a pair of fairly small
scissors I cut away the old strap as close as I could from the hammer,
then put the new bridle strap in.  Took about 6 hours for the whole
thing.

So far (about a year with three of us that play it almost every day)
they have held up fine.

Hope this helps.

Marc Finlen