One team that perplexed me was the Midwest League Kane County Cougars when they first were formed in the early 1990s. I and several other fans and collectors would check their gift shop periodically for game-used, and, except for a few occasional cracked bats, found nothing. Jerseys were a no-show. Then, after their third season or thereabouts, the team, despite all the fans who had inquired at the gift shop over that time span about buying game-used jerseys, decides instead to package them up and sell them to a West Coast dealer in bulk. I could never figure out...you've got a venue and a staff that can sell them individually, you get a couple dozen or more fans and collectors who want to buy the jerseys, so why deprive your supporters by shipping them to Oregon instead of keeping them in the gift shop where the team's real fans can enjoy them? After that, my desire to support the Cougars waned significantly.

Dave Miedema

Dave Miedema