As if losing an extra-inning wild card game wasn’t enough, 
Baltimore Orioles fans have spent a week being tortured again over an online auction. After the O’s lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in extra innings on the night of October 4, manager Buck Showalter was roasted by some for not bringing All-Star closer Zach Britton, his best pitcher, into the game to face the Jays’ best hitters. Instead, Showalter went with Ubaldo Jimenez who wound up surrendering the winning runs.
Then came the auction of Britton’s jersey from that contest.
It caused quite a stir with multiple national media outlets and widely read sports blogs carrying the story. The auction listing described the jersey as “game used”, which from the point of view of most collectors is accurate. Britton had the jersey on during the game. If it had never left the clubhouse the jersey would have been considered “game issued.”
To those outside the hobby, though, there was plenty of irony in the description. Britton himself chimed in with a tweet:
Lol… #falseadvertising https://t.co/OoQNz9zS87
— Zach Britton (@zbritton) October 15, 2016
Considering the controversy over Britton’s absence from the game, though, the jersey does have historic value and bidders were definitely interested. Bidding passed $2,000 heading into the weekend. The auction closed at $2,650.
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