Photomatching Cleats

[bat_master]

Greetings Forum Members:

With regard to game worn baseball cleats would it be plausible to consider a pair of cleats to be a photomatch if, after examing as many available photos (and other sources) of a player throughout that player's career as possible and finding the style of cleats in question to have been worn in only a few of the photos from a certain period of time.

For example, a pair of Player-A's tiger striped Reebok Size 13 are for sale. Photos of Player-A wearing cleats that are similar to these in style and are found to be visible in photos from only a week or two of the player's entire 15 year career. These photos, while they don't allow for matching based on use characteristics (uniform number, dirt, wear, etc), and these are the only photos found of the player wearing that style....would (should?) this be considered a photomatch based on the implied rarity of the style even though an exact match based on physical characteristics cannot be made?

Is it safe to assume that since these cleats were only seen in photos from a 7 to 14 day span (for example) that they are the cleats in question and are the ones for sale? I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Tim Byington

[kingjammy24]

Tim,

Personally, I think the short answer to your question is "no". A photomatch is intented to prove that the item in question is the exact same item in the photo. It isn't intended to be an exercise in the process of elimination.

I'm unsure how accurate your theory can be if you aren't looking at photos of literally every single game of the player's career. If you aren't looking at looking at photos of every single game, then wouldn't it seem more likely that the style seems "rare" simply because of a lack of photos, as opposed to genuinely being rare? That is to say, if someone told me they considered an item photomatched simply because they only found a couple photos of it, then I'd offer that all that proves is that they found a lack of photos. There could easily be 100 more photos out there showing those cleats that they simply haven't found.

Also, a player can receive tons of different cleats. Simply finding a couple photos of the same style and calling it a photomatch seems to completely presume the player only received 1 pair of those cleats. It's entirely realistic to think they received 2 or 3 pairs, wore 1 pair, didn't like them, didn't wear the others and now some of the others are surfacing in the market.

Photomatched equipment is so desireable and valuable because it shows beyond a reasonable doubt that it's the same item. I'd offer that your proposed version of photomatching leaves a lot of reasonable doubt.

Rudy.