So another thread just popped up about a player getting a jersey back, and I thought I would share my story.

I bought some old bats back at the begining of the summer... all were old international players that played in Baltimore before there was a major league team... like my 1936 Woodley Abernathy (international league HR champ).

Well... one of the bats I bought was of Lee Riley... who among many other teams played briefly in Baltimore in 1939.

I was going through my collection and decided to sell some bats and decided that I wasnt that attached to the Riley bat and was going to see if I could get the $100 I payed out of this sidewritten old bat.

In preparing to sell the bat I found out that the only Lee Riley at the time ended up being the father of Coach Pat Riley. I sent a note to the only email address I could find for the Miami heat and wanted to know if Coach Riley would like his father's bat. I got a nice response from their marketing guys and he told me that Coach Riley was very excited to get it.

I sent it off... and a week or two later I got a copy of Pat Riley's Hall of Fame book... autographed to me... and a long hand written letter from the Coach thanking me for my gift. He was very excited to have a bat that his dad "had his own hands around".

The letter is over the top nice... I am not an NBA fan... but Pat Riley is a stand up guy... and I kind of cheer for the Heat now.


Bert