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Marked
balls
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| Some teams mark their balls on the sweet spot so their employees won't steal them and get them signed. I used to think these balls were ugly, but now I kinda like them. It's just a shame that these teams are generally stingy in terms of giving them away during batting practice. |
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H The Houston Astros have guarded their precious balls since the beginning of time, so I made sure to flaunt one in my New York Times photo. |
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P The Pittsburgh Pirates had the decency to mark this ball neatly. |
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S.F.
The San Francisco Giants didn't. |
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F
Same for the Florida Marlins. |
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NY The New York Mets REALLY wanted to keep track of all their balls in the mid-90s. See the one in the middle? Never get a ball signed with a Sharpie (or any other magic marker) or it might "bleed" and end up looking like this. |
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C Some teams stamp their balls. This one belonged to the Chicago Cubs. |
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SD
San Diego Padres. |
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X Why did the Atlanta Braves use an X? I don't know. All I can tell you is that this is my 1,000th ball. |
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KCR Key Component Review? Kowloon Canton Railway? Kansas City Royals? Kentucky Cancer Registry? |
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Star I forget which team this came from. If you have a similar ball, please get in touch and let me know. |
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E |
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TB Too Bad the Devil Rays continue to suck. |
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Dodgers,
Part I At one point, the Los Angeles Dodgers used a fancy stamp... |
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Dodgers,
Part II
...and then they became just like everyone else. |
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Brewers,
Part I Ditto for the Milwaukee Brewers. I caught this ball at some point in the 90s... |
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Brewers,
Part II ...and I snagged this one on June 11, 2003 at Miller Park. I even know that it was my 2nd of 17 balls that day. How? Because I started labeling them after ball No. 2,000. The Brewers drew the line. I wrote the "2025" and typed all the details into my ball log. |
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C This came from Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin. |
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Mystery
writing I have *NO* idea what the writing means. It was already there when Colorado Rockies pitcher Scott Dohmann threw me the ball on 9/29/05 at Shea Stadium. |
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Accidental
autograph More Rockies weirdness the next day: this ball was already signed by shortstop Omar Quintanilla when he tossed it to me. |
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Sign
at the "X" Someone on the Mets had apparently made a joke about autograph collectors by drawing an "X" and a blank line on the sweet spot. |
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