How rare are actual hit balls that are mlb authenticated?

[allstarsplus]

Re: How rare are actual hit balls that are mlb authenticated?

I think it would depend on the authenticator for the particular stadium.

From experience, I know for significant games like All Star Games, HR Derbys, and the World Series they try to document as much info as possible such as pitcher, batter and outcome such as "single", "ball in the dirt", etc.

From experience with the Washington Nationals, their authenticators only write "game used ball" and the date unless it is a HR ball. Since most of RFK Stadium's HRs never make it into the seats, the authenticator collects the HR balls that go over the fence. I was fortunate to get some great HR balls including 1 from Alfonso Soriano and his 40/40/40 season in 2006.

Let's hope all authenticators document all balls which make great collectibles!

Andrew

[brianborsch]

Hello all,

I managed to pickup a couple of game used baseballs that were the actual balls hit in a game from mlb.com auctions a few months back. I was glad as usually what's for sale are balls from a particular game, but not necessarily the actual ball hit.
So my question is, how rare are the actual hit balls from games that are mlb authenticated? I was hoping to see much more, but alas, there aren't any! How does one find these things? I am sure there is a demand.....

Brian B