Does anybody else do this?

[Tunis]

I am about 90% through the 2012 season, tracking each and every at bat, of my favorite player, Jose Lopez. By tracking, I mean making notes of which model of bat he used for each at-bat, what style of jersey was worn, etc. I don't take screen shots of each bat but at least it gives me a database to refer back to if a bat comes onto the market.

This has helped me photomatch bats that were many games apart from each other. I was very surprised to see this. It was also interesting to see how many bats he broke during the games.

This probably means I have way too much time on my hands but MLB.com is wonderful for this kind of work during the off-season.

I guess if he was playing this year, I would track his at bats for 2013 but playing in Japan ruins that for me.

[coxfan]

The kind of investigative work you do is what makes hobbies enjoyable; and constructive in that you're using your mind. Hobbies, like collecting of any kind, give scope for a lot of individual variation in how we do things, and that in turn gives more room for creativity. Probably most of us do something similar with our collecting niche, whatever it is.

For example, I periodically survey the MLB authentication of items from selected games to get a sense of how MLB authentication is working at different times and in different cities. What you learn from one focused survey of any kind can be shared as general knowledge for others through this forum.

[Dach0sen0ne]

I do this for Austin Jackson and have done it since his rookie year in 2010. It comes in handy when researching/photomatching bats. I started doing it because he was using other players bats frequently and was just trying to keep tabs on what could be floating around.

[Tunis]

I found the same thing. I had never known him to swing anybody else's bat, yet I actually saw him use Shin Soo Choo's bat(I think) and break it but the MLB # does not reflect that it belonged to Choo. I wish I could find that bat!