The number of big league players using pink bats once a year has tripled since 2006, so you’ll see plenty of them up for bid over the next few weeks. The MLB Mother’s Day Game Used Auction is underway with dozens of items that saw game action on May 12 coming up for bid. Some of those auctions will conclude later this week.
The annual breast cancer awareness games are a shout out to women across North America who are fighting or have fought the battle and there’s a fundraising angle as well.
Major League Baseball Charities, Inc. will equally distribute its proceeds from the auction of MLB Pink Ribbon Products to The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. and Entertainment Industry Foundation, for breast cancer initiatives. The items, especially the bats and shoes, are unique and generally draw strong bidding from collectors and those who just want to support the cause.
Among the bats up for bid now are those swung by Buster Posey, Adam Jones, Evan Longoria, Chin Soo Choo, Carlos Gomez, Pedro Alvarez, John Buck and pitching sensation Matt Harvey.
Fox Sports Ohio traveled to the Louisville Slugger Factory to learn more about the history of the pink bats and watch them being created in the weeks leading up to the games that took place across the major leagues and featured the items now in the auction.
Pink cleats worn by Freddie Freeman, Lucas Duda, Nick Markakis, Jean Segura, Adam LaRoche and a host of coaches and managers like Buck Showalter and Davey Johnson are generating bids as is a pair of batting gloves from Braves’ star B.J. Upton.
The bats, cleats and batting gloves all start with $200 minimum bids.
Bats from Posey and Brewers’ outfielder Norichika Aoki are already over $1,000 but others have yet to pass the $200 opening bid.
With minimum bids of $50 are game-used wrist bands, arm sleeves from the likes of Andrew McCutchen and pendants.
You can see some of the MLB pink bats that have made their way to eBay by clicking here.