Blog: July 27-August 2, 2009

July 27, 2009. It's official -- Hal McRae is wearing Chris Duncan's old #16... Ankiel is back to his red-ringed Rawlings model... On television, the "5" isn't visible on the knob of Holliday's Pujols-model bat. Holliday hasn't written his own number either, but the heavy pine tar will serve as an easy way to distinguish the bat Matt is using from those Albert has used.

July 28, 2009. The Jackie Robinson Day jerseys were distributed before tonight's game. My buddy, Wade Hampton, won Kyle Lohse's jersey. Congrats, Wade!... Rasmus was using a new model -- looked to be a natural maple Verdero bat. Verdero was purchased from FILA by Controlling the Game a couple years ago. For those of you keeping track, that's six brands of bat used by Rasmus this season -- unless you consider Verdero and Controlling the Game one in the same.

July 29, 2009. You'd think in 15 innings that at least one guy would use a different bat, but not tonight. Great game, but from an equipment standpoint, about the only observation is that several bats seemed to break. Pujols broke at least two, and Rasmus' bat snapped in two when he delivered his game-tying hit in the bottom of the ninth. I was at the game and got a decent photo of that.

July 30, 2009. Both Rasmus and Holliday added new bats to their inventory tonight. Rasmus swung a natural LS M9. It's the first time I've seen him use a maple LS since the black one he employed in spring training... Holliday used a black ash Louisville Slugger. That makes four brands in his first week.

July 31, 2009. A few All-Star related notes. Several items from the event are available through MLB.com auctions. These include balls, bases and oversized Topps cards that decorated the outside of Busch... Light pole banners that were displayed throughout downtown will be sold by the city at a cost of $250 each... Because MLB owned just about everything used during the events, the Cardinals don't have much to sell related to All-Star week. However, I understand the Authentics Store will soon be selling cushioned, folding chairs that were used in the temporary seating areas of Busch. Fewer than 500 seats will be available. Details to come once I know more.

August 1 , 2009. There currently are nine All-Star Game press pins available on eBay. More than 30 already have sold. The first ones out there fetched well more than $100 each, but more recent sales are in the $60-70 range... Haven't heard about any great Cardinals-related finds at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland this week. If you went to the National and saw anything of interest, please let me know.

August 2 , 2009. A collection of 12 items from Bob Gibson's personal collection were auctioned last Thursday evening by Legendary Auctions. Among the highlights: Gibson's 1968 MVP award sold for $120,000; his '68 Cy Young Award went for $84,000; at $57,000, his 2006 WS ring went for more than his '67 ring ($54,000) or his HOF ring ($30,000); Gibson's HOF plaque sold for $45,000; and the only game-used item, a fielding glove, sold for $9,000... Just a reminder -- if a Pujols bat doesn't have a model number on the barrel, it cannot be considered a game-issued (or game-used) bat. This bat is a perfect example of a bat that was made to be signed, not used. If it truly has traces of pine tar and rack scrapes, somebody at some point was up to no good.