Is Everyone a Batboy?

[harpt]

I have been struck my a strange phenomenon...it seems nearly every person who contacts me to sell something claims to have been a batboy at one time or another. I know there have been a lot of batboys over the years, but come on...

It is to the point where when I see someone using "it came from a batboy" as provenance, I take that as a negative...like there is something fishy about it. I know that there are people out there selling stuff who actually were batboys. This, of course, is not fair to them. I just can't help but to be turned off by the phrase now.

Anyone else experiencing this?

[bigtruck260]

I have seen it too...

The other one seems to be 'obtained from MLB employee...' Who?

[AWA85]

Good point, that MLB employee is the one I have been running into a ton! Some reason the various sellers never want to give the smallest hint of who this employee is. :cool:

[Metsfan808]

Good point, that MLB employee is the one I have been running into a ton! Some reason the various sellers never want to give the smallest hint of who this employee is. :cool:

If it were true that they had a source on a team for game used items, if you were them would you be forthcoming about who they were with anyone interested in buying from you? I know I would not.

[Yankwood]

Another prominent bat boy...http://worldoflongmire.com/dailycomment/batboy.jpg

[kingjammy24]

my favorite is the ubiquitous "impeccable team source". everyone's got one of those. one of my favorite tales was when bernie gernay (PSI) won a titans jersey off ebay from a seller in NJ. the seller had previously won the item from NFL auctions. all of it was as clear as day in their histories. later when asked where he got the jersey bernie said he received it directly from "a titans assistant coach". beautiful. so the titans assistant coach went on ebay to purchase a titans jersey from NFL auctions. here's the story: http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=5581

without disclosing the person, anyone can claim anything. i'm not sure how valuable a piece of information is when it can't be verified. everyone makes up those garbage stories because they know there's often no way of verifying anything. if i said i received a jersey directly from david ortiz, who's going to be able to contact ortiz to verify it? likely noone.

anyway, i knew an MLB batboy once. the team was very explicit and firm in stipulating to its batboys that they couldn't ask the players for anything, including autographs, equipment, etc. and that if they did, it'd be grounds for dismissal. the batboy i knew was too concerned with his sweet gig to even entertain asking for an autograph, much less a jersey or bat. even his friends knew it was completely fruitless to ask him to get some autographs. it's one thing if a player goes out of his way to form a rapport and volunteers to give you stuff but i imagine most batboys don't go around the clubhouse collecting items for their own collection. these are young kids who've gotten their dream jobs and most don't risk things by running afoul of team rules.

rudy.

[kingjammy24]

who can forget this great "team source" story:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2002/0312/1349875.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/news/2002/03/12/yankees_rivera_ap/

"But there's one item Jeter never sells. 'I know those gloves are very personal' Steiner said. 'He never parts with them'."

rudy.

[jppopma]

I hear this excuse way too often as well. Funny how it's more often than not that the ballboy gave it to a friend and has tons of red flags.

The other BS excuse I hear quite a bit is the...well I was a season ticket holder and it was given to me. Uh huh, suuuuuuuuuure.

[frikativ54]

The excuse I always hear is the "a friend of [insert player] sold it to me." One dealer even went so far as to claim that the player would be mad if it ever got back to him that this item was sold by the friend. Funny thing is I later ran into the supposed "friend", and this person didn't even know the player personally. But the batboy excuse is classic. I had a guy try to sell me a fake batting helmet with that excuse; luckily, I didn't bite.

[zonker]

well all i can say is beware of some legit ex-batboy's! exspecialy this 1. he ripped me off for 800+ i tried everything to contact this guy. i sent complaint's to his local police dept. stating thta i gotripped and paid thru the post office, supplied all kind's of email's pic's and all receipt's from the transaction. they never even tried to contact me about my complaint, so if you receive an offer from this guy. BEWARE

[zonker]

sorry i guess i should put a name with the pic's. mike schultz goes by robinyount1

[stlgroundskeeper]

Not everyone who uses the "I was a BAt boy" provenance wasn't one. I for one was a bat boy for the Memphis Redbirds for 2 years and a groundskeeper at the spring training facility, Roger Dean Stadium, in Juipter, FL for 1 year.

[skyking26]

Not everyone who uses the "I was a BAt boy" provenance wasn't one. I for one was a bat boy for the Memphis Redbirds for 2 years and a groundskeeper at the spring training facility, Roger Dean Stadium, in Juipter, FL for 1 year.
I'm sure everybody understands this. However, the growing number of people who use this as provenance is scary; and those that use it should provide proof when selling or not mention it as it appears silly.

I too have heard all this before myself. I was going to buy a jersey and helmet from a prominent player, and the guy said he was friends with the players teammate who sold him the stuff and he did not want to be revealed. I passed on the stuff, and he later put it in auction and did reveal the players name later but early on did not saying the player would be "upset."

I think everybody's point here is that whether the stories are true of not - they really do not hold water if they can not be validated and actually leave a bit of a tinge on an item when they are not...