Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

[fixter]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

You guys may have figured out if you have read any of my other posts that I pretty much collect game used items from the Bell family exclusively. My experiences have all been very positive. But it may have much to do with the type of person that any given player chooses to be. I guess I am fortunate that the entire family has been top notch on every occasion I have had to meet them.

By far the best game used item experience I have had has been my "bat quest." I have a game used Gus Bell bat. I decided shortly after I got it that I wanted to have it signed by Buddy, David, Mike and Rick. I travelled to Spring Training this year in AZ, where I (and my bat) met Gus Bell's sister in the stands, got Buddy to sign it (one of the coolest things I have ever witnessed - he took it in his hands, extended it, looked down the barrel and said "Wow") and then 2 days later got Rick to sign it while we walked and talked so far I wound up in the restricted area when we finished. And to top it off a security guy saw me looking for a way to get out came over and helped me find my way because he wanted to see the bat he had heard the stories about being at the game 2 days earlier.

[metsbats]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

I have 7 game used bats and 4 game used jerseys of 86 Met Ed Hearn and he told me I have more memoriablia from his playing days then he had. He's been over my home to see my collection of his game used stuff was very amused by it.

Gary Carter was pleasant when I showed him a photo of 4 bats he used to reach several milestones in his career (1500th hit, 900th RBI, 5 hrs in 2 days to tie MLB record, 250th home). His agent Mead Chasky said he remembered the bats and then proceeded to hand me his card and asked me to contact him if i wanted to sell them.

Fortunately I've never had a bad experience w/ players when showing them gamers however my gamers are mostly from the 80's Mets an era when players were n't out to make extra bucks marketing their stuff.

I 'm not surprised the modern day players react negatively to being presented their gamers given the way the teams and players market their gamers for resell.

David

[kylehess10]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

Kylehess I think your missing the point the players are not mad bcuz they are having a bad day. I have run across that same problem a couple of times. The reason they are mad is bcuz from my opinion 2 reasons.
1) They feel slighted that you got something of theres and they didnt give it to you. ( "like how did you get that i didnt give it to you" )
2) There a bit annoyed becuz you got something of theres and they didnt see any money out of it.

I bet you if the Athlete himself sold that same item to you for $1000, he woulfd be like "Yeah sure ill take a picture with you, is your wife around tell her to get in the picture too"

Some guys are nice some are not.

Here is my experience - I had one athlete deny about 3 items i had of his were his. I know for a fact they were his, yet he denied it bcuz he was pissed he didnt get anything out of it.

I thought that the players ARE paid for their game used. I purchase most of my game used from ASI & ESM and someone from ESM once told me that all of their game used were purchased directly from the player.

[suave1477]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

Kyle here is my take on items from those companies. I do beleive they purchase the items from the players. If you notice vertain player items constantly on there chances are they have made a deal with that player especially when they have LOAS showing a player signing items for them or an LOA signed by the player.

BUT!!! have you ever noticed they will have 1 item of a player that they never had before and most likely never will again. I think those items come from the players that they do deal with. Like maybe one of there contracted players happend to trade with a teamate or another player and they threw it into there batch of items that they sold to them. You notice with those items they issue a LOA just stating the players name and game used.
They do not include any photo of that player or include any letter signed by that player.

[sandman02910]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

In response to Geoff's original post concerning Hanley Ramirez. I know Hanley has done signings with ASI and he has also give many many items to his former Clubhouse Manager. The items Geoff has came from both of those sources from me. I have met Hanley on about half a dozen instances and all were much less than positive dating from mid 04 through the end of 05. Sometimes he appears shy and others he seems just plain iggnorant. He could either be sitting in the stands early before a road game during a rain delay or getting off the team bus at an away game and he has snubbed fans each time. I could also go into many stories about what his teammates think of him but the purpose of this post is not to bash Hanley.
In Geoff's case Hanley did not even bother to find out what items he may have had. If they were ASI items or items he gave to his clubhouse manager why would he be upset. ASI paid him and the other items were gifts.
In many other instances I have had extremely positive eperiences with Jon Lester, Craig Hansen, Justin Morneau, Bronson Arroyo, Jason Bay, Jed Lowrie and above all Jonathan Papelbon. All of these players seemed very appreciative that someone was a big enough fan to collect their items. I have also had players ask me for certain items I was having them sign in exchange for other items. I have been lucky enough to actually start good relationships with players this way. I approached Jason Bay with a Game Used AA minor league jersey and he held it looking at it amazed it still existed. I would have to say in my experience a majority of players fall into this category but sadly there are the few like Nettles and Hanley that ultimately turn their fans away.

[Swoboda4]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

Moral of the story:Take your picture with the player first-THEN tell him you have his game used stuff. Otherwise he'll believe the picture is being used to authenticate future sales. Fisk is OK,he was just taken a little by surprise at the restaurant with the magazine request and like a lot of older players err on the side of suspicion. Remember they're(older players) ALL pissed off they didn't get paid like players today so don't worry about it. Don't get upset that these guys aren't perfect-don't let it ruin your love of the game.

[geoff]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

Great thought all.I never told Hanley when and where i got those items and he just did not care.

[GrndSlm]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

I guess these situations happen all the time. Back in 1983, I had a game used Eddie Murray bat and asked him to sign it in spring training. Well, he took one look at it and took it from me. He walked right into the clubhouse and left it in his locker. He then passed right by me into his rental car and left the stadium. I was 14 years old......

[earlywynnfan]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

I guess these situations happen all the time. Back in 1983, I had a game used Eddie Murray bat and asked him to sign it in spring training. Well, he took one look at it and took it from me. He walked right into the clubhouse and left it in his locker. He then passed right by me into his rental car and left the stadium. I was 14 years old......

Wow, that's funny! Sorry it happened, though; I've heard he's, uh, jerky.

Phil Niekro was impressed as heck that I had one of his bats.

Al Oliver took his gamer, stood up and took a few swings, and said "I think it still has some hits left in it!" That was way cool, and I felt like a bigshot to everyone else behind me in line.

I was having a conversation with Vern Fuller and told him I was bidding on a bat of his but got beat out. He said "Why the H*ll would you want that?? I bet it didn't show any use; I never hit anything." He was kidding -- he is really a nice guy.

Reggie Jax looked his bat over very carefully and signed it "gamer" at my request, which was very nice. On the other hand, he wouldn't shake my hand or look me in the eye. He probably thinks it went to auction the next day, but the joke's on him: it's still displayed on my wall!

(I don't want to take potshots at Jax, Fisk, or any other pro athlete for thinking this; how would it feel to watch people constantly make money off of you? And I don't chalk that up to greed on the player's part, either. I got the nicest baseball signed by Hilly Lane (quick, who can identify him??) and he included a nice letter and extras. On the bottom, he wrote "PLEASE don't sell this." I felt really embarrassed, even though I never had any intention of selling it.)

Sorry for the rant,
Ken

[Utopian2630]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

I remember being no older than 12 and approached Terry Pendleton at the team hotel with a game used bat I bought at a card show months earlier. He grabbed the bat, examined the bat by nearly taking a check swing and then began curse me out saying "you stole my f-ing bat"..."how did you steal my f-ing bat"...I told him that I bought it at a card show to which he replied "car show my a--". So when my dad saw me getting berated by Pendleton, he stepped in basically telling him to lay off and that I was just a kid who bought this bat at a card show. Pendleton then tells my dad he's a bad father for allowing his son to have stolen goods. It never really escalated and he ended up signing the bat anyway. That was the only bad experience I've ever had getting game used items signed. I once got an aluminum stick from Gretzky after a morning skate and years later at a golf tournament my mother was on medical staff at, I ended up meeting him and showed him the stick. He signed it beautifully, with a great lengthy inscription wishing me well in school and dated it.

Thought I'd give 2 different extremes of my experiences.

[Yankwood]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

(I don't want to take potshots at Jax, Fisk, or any other pro athlete for thinking this; how would it feel to watch people constantly make money off of you? And I don't chalk that up to greed on the player's part, either. I got the nicest baseball signed by Hilly Lane (quick, who can identify him??) and he included a nice letter and extras. On the bottom, he wrote "PLEASE don't sell this." I felt really embarrassed, even though I never had any intention of selling it.)

Sorry for the rant,
Ken

Hilly Lane didn't want you to sell it? Hilly Lane? I'm sure you're going to get flooded with requests for it now that everyone here knows you have it. Who the hell is Hilly Lane? When I was a kid, a friend of mine lived on a street that ran perpendicular to Hilly Lane. So, like, who is Hilly Lane, seriously.

I once stood in line waiting for Willie Mays to sign an old Adirondack bat of his. I had heard all the "horror" stories about Mays and I was somewgat guarded while waiting to meet him. As the usual things passed before him, the promoter handed him the bat I brought. He literally stood up and took a few short swings with it. He asked who brought it, and the promoter pointed me out. I was waiting for the worst. Instead, all he said was, "Y'know, I never kept anything like this from when I played." And then he talked a little while he signed it. Very nice.
Later, as I was walking around the place looking at everyone else's stuff, the promoter came up to me and told me he had a request from "Mr. Mays" to offer me $1000 for the bat. I respectfully declined and told him I had just purchased the bat for $600 (obviously that was a while back, huh?) and that I intended on keeping it forever (I didn't).
The bat in question was a model 282C. I have seen many times in bat discussions the "C" bat topic come up. When Willie looked at the knob he said,"282C, man, I used a ton of these for a while". Now, maybe he thought he did and was mistaken but I don't believe it by the way he said it. These guys know their bats, I believe. Anyway, this doesn't make the "C" Adirondack bat model controversy any clearer but I DO believe some of them were used by major leaguers. Stick to Louisvilles, I guess.

[allstarsplus]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

Greatest experience would be with Cal Ripken Jr. He definitely knows his own stuff as he will take the time to inspect a bat or jersey and discuss the item and whether the item was used by him and will give an opinion either way.

He will even give an opinion sometimes on premium items on his personal suggestion on what type of pen he should use for signing. If he picks up the gold paint pen----he likes it!

[Swoboda4]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

Utopian2630's bad experience with Pendleton and Yankwood's fortunate encounter with Mays is the best authentication in the world. When players are moved to jumping out of their seats and sizing up an item,in these cases a bat,you should be very,very happy. Forget when the encounter is rough,you just hit the autentication jackpot.

[geoff]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

I have a game used Brian Roberts bat that i got from ESM on ebay a while back.I am going to a Roberts signing on monday night at a local store.I think i am going to bring my bat for him to look at.I hope he does not get mad at me and take it like that Eddie story.I will let you know if he was a nice guy or a mean young ballplayer.Geoff

[bigtime59]

Re: Baseball Players and their Game Used Items

I have a game used Brian Roberts bat that i got from ESM on ebay a while back.I am going to a Roberts signing on monday night at a local store.I think i am going to bring my bat for him to look at.I hope he does not get mad at me and take it like that Eddie story.I will let you know if he was a nice guy or a mean young ballplayer.Geoff

Geoff:
I will be very interested in your experience with BRob. I presented him with one of his Rochester Redwings minor league jerseys to sign at the Orioles Summer Fanfest 2003 (at least I think it was '03). When I presented it to sign, I said, "I expect it's the last time you'll see one of these." He looked pissed, and didn't say a word.
Now, I'm in my 40s, and look it--especially on a softball field(!)-- so, perhaps, he thought I was a dealer. But, still, I went to the trouble to buy the thing from the Redwings, and stand in line for him to sign it.

By contrast, Eric DuBose, when presented with his Midland Rockhounds jersey at the Baltimore Fanfest in 2005, smiled, said he remembered Midland, and seemed happy to sign the jersey.

Of course, BRob is now the O's starting second baseman, and DuBose is mired in AA ball...could that have had something to do with their reactions?