Blog: July 26-August 1, 2010

July 27, 2010. Albert Pujols appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman last night and, in one segment, took some BP on 53rd St. He was using a new Marucci bat and wearing what appeared to be red Nike batting gloves with white accents. After the show, he gave the gloves to actor Denis Leary, who pitched to Pujols, and gave Dave a Marucci bat personalized with Letterman's name. I'm not sure if that's the bat Pujols used, or whether Albert swung his own stick... After years of trying to sell the first 2nd base bag from the inaugural game at Busch III for what turned out to be too high a price, the team's Authentics store put it up at auction last week. It sold for $730. (Note: Just heard from the happy buyer, who reminded me the original asking price on that base was $3,000. Congrats on the purchase, Paul!)

July 28, 2010. Mike MacDougal made his Cardinals debut in the 12th inning and ended up with the win. MacDougal was wearing #63, but Cards' broadcaster Al Hrabosky said MacDougal will switch to #48 when the team returns home on Friday. Those digits had been assigned to Rich Hill during the spring, but Hill was released by Memphis on 6/30. Fellow Cardinals blogger Brian Walton played a role in the upcoming number swap; he offers his account on thecardinalnation.com... For the record, MacDougal's NOB appeared in all upper case with no discernible space between the C and the D... More evidence of falling bat prices -- a picture-perfect 2009 Ryan Ludwick sold on eBay last evening for $102.50 while a nice Mark DeRosa sold for a measly $26 -- about a tenth of what fans paid last season at the team's Authentics store. Wow... In case I didn't make my position clear before, I think Cool Base jerseys look like crap after extended wear.

July 29, 2010. Looks like Rip Rowan has been busy at his sewing machine. Instead of waiting to return home, he whipped up a #48 road jersey for Mike MacDougal, which Mike wore during his pitching appearance today. Note the spacing of the letters is the same as yesterday. Given the length of his name, MacDougal would be an ideal candidate for a smaller "AC." We'll see how the home jersey looks tomorrow... Molina used a natural Sam Bat. Not new, but definitely unusual this season.

July 30, 2010. Went to the game tonight and stopped in the Authentics Store. They had a few new bats, but no new players represented. One interesting bat was a natural Sam Bat used by Matt Holliday. It had a white sticker on the barrel with notations written on it. I assume it was part of the recent broken bat study and was returned with the sticker on it... Received a Vince Coleman bobble head upon entering the ballpark tonight. After asking around, though, it appears mine was the only one that came with it's own killer tarp.

July 31, 2010. Colby Rasmus used a black Old Hickory for a couple of at-bats tonight. That marks the first time this season (that I've noticed) he's used something other than a black LS M9. I'm pretty sure he used the M9 for his home run, though... Whitey Herzog's #24 was officially added to the outfield wall tonight. He also was awarded a framed jersey, complete with the wrong sized letters for the style and arm banding that appears far too narrow. Really, they couldn't come closer to recreating a 1982 jersey than that?... Mike MacDougal's home jersey looks like his road shirt -- same size letters, same spacing.

August 1, 2010. After using at least three different bats last night, Brendan Ryan swung a black LS M9 during today's game... New Cardinals pitcher Jake Westbrook is wearing #35. Bad news for Adam Ottovino, who owned those digits just a few weeks ago. But, good news for Jeff Suppan, whose #37 has been on Westbrook's back most of his career. I'm probably not the only one who thought Sup was in real danger of being released after the Westbrook trade.