Quick Question Was Hoping Someone Could Help Me With

[Gyro123]

Quick question. I know we have all seen blue, green (BP) and gold (WBC) ball marks on bats from bat and ball contact. Anyone have any ideas as to where red ball marks come from? Any possible explanations?

[tigerdale]

How old of a bat?? years ago, I know world series balls some years had red ink...........

[emann]

How old of a bat?? years ago, I know world series balls some years had red ink...........

Same with All Star balls, certain years.

[coxfan]

I have a cracked Chris Snelling bat that was game-used in April 2007, per the MLB hologram. It has some red streaks and small red marks. I don't know if they may have somehow rubbed off the red band on the other part of the bat.

I have several BP balls from MLB, including one Selig ball marked " training ball" instead of "major league baseball" over his signature. None of my BP balls, including the Selig training ball, has any green on it. They're all blue.

[xpress34]

Also in the early 2000's after 9/11 MLB issued a few different balls that were red/blue stitched (Opening Day 2002) as well as ones that included the U.S. Flag (Blue and RED Ink) used on July 4th 2002, and Memorial and Labor Day 2002 - they coincided with teams wearing the Flag Patch on their caps for Memorial Day Weekend, July 4th and Labor Day Weekend before finally going to the League wide BLUE cap with the Logo in Red, White and Blue last year for those events.

Other than that, yes MANY of the AS Balls and WS Balls from the mid 70's (when Rawlings took over the Manufacturing of ALL Official AL and NL Balls) up until the mid 90's when the AS bals starting being stitched and stamped with Team Colors were all labeled with RED Ink instead of the traditional NL Black Ink or AL Blue Ink. I know the 2004 AS Balls from Houston are Red and Cream stitched with RED ink and like many years recently, MLB divides the left over AS balls among the MLB teams for BP.

I know that the WS Balls have been printed with GOLD Ink since about 2000, and IF you should EVER come across a GU bat with SILVER Ink Transfer, I can tell you WITHOUT Phot Match the ONLY Ball I know it could have come from and that is the Opening Day 2000 MILLENIUM Ball. As far as I know and have ever found, it is the ONLY SILVER Inked Ball Rawlings has ever made and they made a VERY Limited quantity of them for Game Use and even less for Retail Sale. I have ONE GU one signed by an unknown player that had been in a Lost and Found tub at Coors Field since 2000 that a worker I know there gave to me.

I have seen maybe 2 or 3 others offered for sale.

I have friends that have started off shoot collections of AS balls from the previous season that they caught during BP at Coors Field during the first few weeks of the season. In fact, Opening weekend here, a friend of mine caught a BP HR ball that was from the HR Derby at Yankee Stadium last year with the AS Logo and HR Derby Logo on it.

Having worked for Rawlings at Coors Field for about 3 years, it doesn't surprise me that MLB would do this to save money on BP balls considering as of 2006 the MLB used an average of 72,000 dozen balls - YES, 72,000 x 12 = 864,000 balls a YEAR - almost 1mil balls - and even at their 'bulk rate' or nearly $8 ball, that's almost $7mil a year - NOT including the AS Game or the Post Season Balls!

If you ever want to check out various Rawlings Ball logos, contact the following: kathy@allprorehl.com

They sell on eBay and buy direct from Rawlings and at one time had COMPLETE Sets of AS Balls (since Rawlings started Logoing them in the 70's) as well as COMPLETE Sets of WS Balls.

I just purchased a 2008 AS Futures Game ball from her to have Dexter Fowler of the Rockies sign for me this season.

Hope the info helps.

All the best -

Chris

[xpress34]

P.S. -

I almost forgot - and the 2007 Chris Snelling Bat reminded me...

Depending on the team, I have also seen teams MARK the BP Balls 'Practice' in a small circle - some a larger mark that states 'Practice Ball' and I have seen various teams over the years STAMP their Team name on BP Balls and in various colors.

Also during BP I have seen players give little kids balls with Red/Blue Stitch that are LABELED MLB Practice Ball in a more green colored ink here at Coors Field... I have yet to obtain one of those for the collection as the tend only to give those to kids...

- Chris

[Klattsy]

I have a cracked Chris Snelling bat that was game-used in April 2007, per the MLB hologram.

Sorry to bump an old thread but coxfan, would you happen to still have this bat?

Thanks,