Blog: July 5-July 11, 2010

July 6, 2010. Dennys Reyes had his first plate appearance in five years tonight. He used Skip Schumaker's X-Bat... I've noticed two photos in the past week of former players wearing what appear to be legit gamers from their playing days. In this shot, both John Mabry and Mike Matheny are wearing pro jerseys. Mabry, in fact, looks like he's wearing his 2004 World Series home shirt. And in this photo, Ozzie Smith is wearing a 1996 home jersey. Ozzie's may not be a gamer -- it's known that he ordered many, many jerseys during his final season. But, one would assume the jersey came from his closet.

July 7, 2010. Evan MacLane made his MLB debut wearing #62, which belonged to P.J. Walters earlier this season. Walters changed to #40 before being sent back to AAA... MacLane's name on the back of his uniform is done in the style of McGwire, McKay, LaRussa and LaRue -- all caps, same height, with a space (MAC LANE -- I can't look at his uni and not think of former Big Red running back MacArthur Lane). I still wonder why Kyle McClellan and Mark DeRosa have/had inconsistent lettering styles.

July 8, 2010. Should have noted last night that Jaime Garcia was using a black LS M9... McGwire once again is leaving his jersey in the locker and wearing the red sweatshirt... Some eBay descriptions make me giggle, like this one: "You are bidding on a black Ozzie Smith Louisville Slugger 125 Genuine bat size 34. The bat has no cracks and is in great condition. It shows very little use with a couple ball marks throughout the bat. Ozzie Smith's name is engraved in silver cursive on the barrel. The number 20 is written on both ends of the bat in silver marker." Number 20? Well, look at the photo of the knob and you'll know why I'm giggling.

July 9, 2010. How popular is Pujols among memorabilia collectors? In the Leland's auction that ended tonight, a 2009 bat with very little evidence of use, no autograph and no visible pine tar sold for almost $2,300. And a 2005 road jersey with an athletic (not straight) hem and no year flag attached to the tag went for $5,350 after juice. Granted, that's not close to the $13,288 his home jersey netted in the Busch Farewell auction back in 2005, but for a road shirt with two less-than-ideal features, well, wow.

July 10, 2010. Nothing new tonight, so let's look at some other items in yesterday's Leland's auction... Interesting how this 1999 McGwire jersey fetched only $1,165, but this signed lineup card from his 61st HR game of 1998 broke $3K... This team-signed 1991 Pedro Guerrero bat attracted just one bid... Glad to see nobody "bit" on this auction. Seriously, Leland's, I'd expect this from some auction houses, but not you.

July 11, 2010. Nothing to report during this last game before the All-Star festivities, so I wanted to try something I haven't done before -- imbed a video. Just before Matt Holliday launched his home run today, Cards broadcaster Mike Shannon unleashed another great Shannonism. Here is is -- a bit of comic relief before the break.