godwulf
07-30-2011, 07:22 PM
I remembered just the other day that the Padres' Triple-A team is in Tucson this year, and realized that I ought to go to one of their games; I'm not a Padres fan, of course, but the Tucson Padres are an Arizona team this year, so, as a student of Baseball history in my state, I felt that I was obligated to see them play at least once, and gather up some souvenirs for the Collection and Archive - particularly since, if their new stadium gets built in California as expected, this turns out to be the team's only season here.
So yesterday, after getting burned alive out at Arizona League game at Salt River, I took a cold shower and then drove to Tucson.
Before the game, I checked out the Team Shop, and there found what a GU collector always likes to see - cracked bats...a plastic tub with about eight of them in it...marked $25 each. Only two had players' names, and only one name did I recognize. Aaron Cunningham was a Diamondbacks prospect in the latter half of '07, between stints with the White Sox and the A's (I think he went to Oakland as part of the Dan Haren deal). I watched him play in the Arizona Fall League, and he played the heck out of Center Field even back then. So, I was not only getting a bat from the team's season in Tucson, it was from a player with a Diamondbacks connection, however short-lived and four years ago.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1d911b3127ccefde91b42440800000030O02EbsmzVu0ZA9 vPhw/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/
The next morning, I'm checking out the bat, and I see this:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1d911b3127ccefde8e9fb648400000030O02EbsmzVu0ZA9 vPhw/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/
I hadn't noticed it the night before, 'cause I'd had to leave the bat in the Team Shop during the game - Kino Veteran's Memorial Stadium being one of those venues that doesn't trust the patrons to refrain from beating one another to death with bats, apparently - and then it was nearly midnight when I got home and I went straight to bed.
It is, very obviously, a semi-hard wad of chewing gum, and seems to have been colored black, probably with a marker, I'm guessing.
I've got lots of bats with pine tar, some with bits of grass in it. This is the only bat in my collection that actually features a wad of (I'm assuming) the bat owner's gum stuck to it. Seen anything like this before? I plan to leave it on, but what are your thoughts on leaving it on vice scraping it off?
So yesterday, after getting burned alive out at Arizona League game at Salt River, I took a cold shower and then drove to Tucson.
Before the game, I checked out the Team Shop, and there found what a GU collector always likes to see - cracked bats...a plastic tub with about eight of them in it...marked $25 each. Only two had players' names, and only one name did I recognize. Aaron Cunningham was a Diamondbacks prospect in the latter half of '07, between stints with the White Sox and the A's (I think he went to Oakland as part of the Dan Haren deal). I watched him play in the Arizona Fall League, and he played the heck out of Center Field even back then. So, I was not only getting a bat from the team's season in Tucson, it was from a player with a Diamondbacks connection, however short-lived and four years ago.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1d911b3127ccefde91b42440800000030O02EbsmzVu0ZA9 vPhw/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/
The next morning, I'm checking out the bat, and I see this:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1d911b3127ccefde8e9fb648400000030O02EbsmzVu0ZA9 vPhw/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/
I hadn't noticed it the night before, 'cause I'd had to leave the bat in the Team Shop during the game - Kino Veteran's Memorial Stadium being one of those venues that doesn't trust the patrons to refrain from beating one another to death with bats, apparently - and then it was nearly midnight when I got home and I went straight to bed.
It is, very obviously, a semi-hard wad of chewing gum, and seems to have been colored black, probably with a marker, I'm guessing.
I've got lots of bats with pine tar, some with bits of grass in it. This is the only bat in my collection that actually features a wad of (I'm assuming) the bat owner's gum stuck to it. Seen anything like this before? I plan to leave it on, but what are your thoughts on leaving it on vice scraping it off?