Unexpected Game Used Surprises You've Uncovered

[cohibasmoker]

Re: Unexpected Game Used Surprises You've Uncovered

My Super Bowl 4 game worn jersey. It came with 3 LOA's and all three LOA's missed the fact the NFL 50th patch was removed and re-positioned, the red stains on the back, the custom sleeve-ends and unique font numbers. The jersey was sent to person(s) associated with the Vikings back in 1969 where it was examined and their opinion was the jersey was worn in SB 4.

Jim

flaa1a@comcast.net

[Dewey2007]

Re: Unexpected Game Used Surprises You've Uncovered

Just discovered another one. Found out the photomatched Jimmy Rollins Rawlings bat I have was used by him to hit an RBI double on 7/25/09 and this gave Rollins a career high 5 RBI's. He also used it to hit a homerun the following day.

[michael47]

Re: Unexpected Game Used Surprises You've Uncovered

I've also had two bats turn out to be historic that were sold as regular bats. The first bat was a Paul O'Neill bat I bought from a dealer in November 1998. I was not in the market for an O'Neill bat but the bat had great use & criss-cross tape & had the look of a really nice game used bat. Since the price was high & I was not looking for an O'Neill bat I did not buy it but there was a large red mark on the bat & there was something familiar about it. I went out that night & stopped at the bookstore since in the back of my mind I had seen that bat before. I had recently been looking at the 1998 World Series book with photos from the entire 1998 Series. Sure enough, in the middle of the book there was a full page photo of O'Neill completing his swing after hitting a double late in Game #4. The photo clearly shows the red ball mark & all other marks match up perfectly. I was up at 7:00 the next morning to get to the show when it opened so that I could buy the bat before someone else did.

The second bat was a Carlos Beltran bat. After the 2008 season ended I received a list of game used memorabilia being sold by the Mets. There were two Beltran bats on the list, one cracked & one uncracked. The uncracked bat got me thinking since most of the bats for sale from the Mets are cracked. Beltran had hit the last Mets homerun in Shea Stadium history a few weeks before but I was told that this bat was not the final Mets homerun bat at Shea so I did not buy it. After thinking about it for two days I decided to ask for pictures of the bat. The uncracked bat had great use on it & I was able to match it perfectly to photos of Beltran hitting the last Met homerun at Shea Stadium.

[Robert Sanders]

Re: Unexpected Game Used Surprises You've Uncovered

I won a couple of 2006 Pedro Martinez Mets GU items through MLB auctions, a hat and a jersey. The jersey turned out to be worn the very first time that he returned to Fenway Park after leaving the Red Sox at the end of the 2004 season. He didn't pitch in that first game, but it was the jersey he wore when he received the initial fan reaction. The hat, on the other hand, turned out to be worn on the day that he got his 200th win. I was quite surprised at the time, and continue to be, that no one at MLB auctions bothered to research the potential significance of these two items.

Robert

[Birdbats]

Re: Unexpected Game Used Surprises You've Uncovered

I've had a couple bats turn out to be special. Admittedly, when I bought them, I had hopes they could be out of the ordinary, but I didn't know for sure until I'd done some research.

Earlier this year, I bought a David Freese bat from the Cardinals. After examining every WS at bat, photos and video, I learned my bat was used during the historic sixth game. Freese swung it for his first two ABs, broke it on his second AB, then switched to a black Rawlings bat that now is in Cooperstown.

The other bat was used by Rick Ankiel for his first HR as a position player. Rick's story is well known -- flamed out as a pitcher, went back to the minors, reinvented himself as an outfielder and made it back to the bigs. In his first game back on 8/9/07, he homered. It was a memorable moment in Cards history. I bought an Ankiel bat at the stadium after the fact, and it turned out to be Rick's HR bat.

Other gambles didn't turn out as well. For example, in 2006, I bought a Mark Mulder jersey from the team. Mark threw the first pitch in new Busch Stadium, and I hoped that maybe this jersey was the one he wore. When I got it signed, though, Mark told me he had the first-pitch jersey. I matched mine the second game Mulder pitched at Busch.

[Dewey2007]

Last night I was researching my 2008-09 Jason Kidd game used road jersey and I discovered he wore the jersey in the game when he scored his 15,000 career point (Feb 2, 2009 @ Orlando).

Not earth-shattering or HOF material by any means but I thought it was nice to have a jersey he wore when he reached a career statistical milestone. This is signifcant only in the fact that in '08-09 Kidd became the first and only NBA player (to date) to have at least 15,000 points, 10,000 assists, & 7,000 rebounds in a career. I was one game off from him wearing the jersey when he recorded his 10,000th assist too which would have been nice.

Would like to hear any unexpected milestones or historical moments you've uncovered that game used equipment in your collection was part of.