Store line bats in the Big Leagues

[BMH]

Our pro rep and I were in the Rockies club house this morning and Tulo walks up. He has a bat in his hands and says he has a story. Last year while out shopping he went into a sporting goods store to look around. He started looking at bats and picked up a 180 series Derek Jeter bat. This is the clear finish with the mlb logo on the front. Your basic $20 bat that anyone can buy. It was the one he had in his hands. He liked the way it felt and he bought it. He used it in the next couple of games because he said he was fighting a slump.

...I really don't know how to end the story since he told it, we laughed and he walked out of the room. Anyway, finally heading back East tomorrow. Can't wait to get home.

[Rossi46]

haha that's a great story Brian! I wonder if it broke the slump??

[joelsabi]

Brian,

That's funny. Wouldn't it be something if someone found a Getty photo of Tulo using the store bat and then using that photo to track down the bat. Thanks for sharing.

So did Tulo end up ordering any P72's last year?

[tigerdale]

wow, that is interesting. You wonder if some players don't even realize themselves the difference between the woods used...

[allstarsplus]

Our pro rep and I were in the Rockies club house this morning and Tulo walks up. He has a bat in his hands and says he has a story. Last year while out shopping he went into a sporting goods store to look around. He started looking at bats and picked up a 180 series Derek Jeter bat. This is the clear finish with the mlb logo on the front. Your basic $20 bat that anyone can buy. It was the one he had in his hands. He liked the way it felt and he bought it. He used it in the next couple of games because he said he was fighting a slump.

...I really don't know how to end the story since he told it, we laughed and he walked out of the room. Anyway, finally heading back East tomorrow. Can't wait to get home.

Brian - Thanks for sharing. Great story. Reminds me of the old Willie Harris 6 for 6 story.

[metsbats]

I dug out this old article from SCD where in his 1990 Donruss card Jose Lind is posing with a "Flame Tempered" branded bat.

[bigtruck260]

I'm still not convinced that Lind was issued a bat that said Flame Tempered. That shot could have been taken in Spring Training...and I have seen photos on Getty of players holding/posing with store model bats.

The photographer could have handed Lind a bat and said.."let me get your picture". There is no telling.

[mariner_gamers]

I have a personal/promo model LVS game used by Edgar Martinez. Gar was doing a signing with Mill Creek Sportcards and liked the grain on a few of the bats he was signing. I made sure my cert says "game used with line under the 125." Not a full retail model but definitely not issued to Gar for game use.

[jppopma]

I agree with Dave. Many of the photo-day pics will have the players using generic bats and jerseys (if not taken on a game or practice day). Hard to use any of them to judge anything. I have seen some without front numbers in the pictures (likely because the photographer has a few for the players to toss on right before the picture).

[jbsportstuff]

One of my favorite examples of someone just grabbing something for a picture is Johnny Bench grabbing Bill Plummer's glove for the famous "GREAT EIGHT" photograph. You can clearly read Plummer written on the glove that Bench is using.