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After Tino Martinez left the Cardinals, the team sold several of the bats he left behind. At least two of those bats had "5" written on the knobs, suggesting they may have been used by Pujols. Both were R205 models, which is a bat Albert ordered early in his career. Of course, Albert is well known to use other players' bats, especially early in his career. (He used a black LSM9 Yadier Molina bat today in Chicago.)
After a long search for a photo of Pujols using a Martinez bat, one finally was discovered at a local card show -- it actually was a slide from the Fleer liquidation. Here's the best part -- it appears one of the Tino bats is a match to the bat Albert is using in the photo (taken in Chicago in early 2002).
I've posted some photos below and circled a few areas that seem distinct enough to call this a photo match. They include a mark to the right of "Powerized," a distinct dark spot below and to the right of "Cardinals," and a light area surrounded by dark near the end. Unfortunately, you cannot see the wood grain that's visible in a high-res photo made from the slide; if you could, you'd see the wood grain is consistent. You also can't clearly see the "5" on the barrel end, but in high-res, you can see it also is consistent in terms of size and placement.
I'd appreciate your thoughts... would you agree that this shot is convincing enough to be considered a photo match? Thanks.
Jeff
After a long search for a photo of Pujols using a Martinez bat, one finally was discovered at a local card show -- it actually was a slide from the Fleer liquidation. Here's the best part -- it appears one of the Tino bats is a match to the bat Albert is using in the photo (taken in Chicago in early 2002).
I've posted some photos below and circled a few areas that seem distinct enough to call this a photo match. They include a mark to the right of "Powerized," a distinct dark spot below and to the right of "Cardinals," and a light area surrounded by dark near the end. Unfortunately, you cannot see the wood grain that's visible in a high-res photo made from the slide; if you could, you'd see the wood grain is consistent. You also can't clearly see the "5" on the barrel end, but in high-res, you can see it also is consistent in terms of size and placement.
I'd appreciate your thoughts... would you agree that this shot is convincing enough to be considered a photo match? Thanks.
Jeff
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