From milestones to foul balls, MLB authenticators chronicle every pitch, snaring dozens of items from all 162 games for every team, plus playoffs.
However, if you’re looking for a home run ball from the recent Field of Dreams game in Iowa, good luck.
“The way the corn was planted, the immensity of it and the height of it, the ball would literally just disappear,” said MLB’s Director of Authentication, Michael Posner.
They went to great pains to mark all of the baseballs Miguel Cabrera might hit for his 500th career home run.
It’s part history, part fraud prevention and part revenue generator. This Sports Illustrated cover story is about their work, which is a little more difficult this year than it was in 2020.
MLB did plenty of authenticating during Derek Jeter’s career. Now some of those items are on the auction block.
His batting gloves and elbow bat worn during his last game on September 28, 2014, a 2014 All-Star Game bat, a game-used helmet and the cleats he was wearing in 2009 when he broke Lou Gehrig’s record for most hits in Yankees history are now being offered by MLB Auctions as his induction in Cooperstown approaches on Wednesday.
Georgia quarterback JT Daniels and North Carolina quarterback Sam Howell have signed deals with a trading card company that will pay each player a hefty fee–and royalties for every one that’s sold.
They join Patriots’ quarterback Mac Jones in partnering with Glow Trading Cards. ESPN has a breakdown of the deals.
Something you don’t see every day…
a ticket stub from Al Kaline’s first major league hit. There were only about 16,000 fans watching the Tigers and White Sox at Comiskey Park that day when Mr. Tiger got the first of his 3,0007 career hits. He was just 18 years old. It’s up for auction here.
KVOA-TV in Tucson visits long-time shop owner George Mares at Showtime Cards for a story on the hobby’s resurgence:
