Oddball game-used memorabilia

[Gary Dunaier]

Here is a photo I took of a grounds crew man at Citi Field cleaning the railing in front of the photographers' pen prior to the start of a recent Mets game.


(Photo taken June 9, 2018. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


Here is a close-up photo of the actual squirt bottle used by that grounds crew man to perform the activity described above.


(Photo taken June 9, 2018. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


All it needs is an official Major League Baseball authentication hologram, and we now have an officially authenticated piece of game-used memorabilia.



Okay, I'm being silly here. But just a little. Sports is a passion - to some, a religion - and that extends into the world of sports memorabilia. Back in 1992, someone paid $440 for a toothpick - a toothpick - found in the pocket of a Tom Seaver warmup jacket (and it came with a letter of authenticity singed by "The Franchise" himself). And even weirder things have been sold. You or I may not want the specific items, but I'm sure you can understand, to some degree, why someone would be willing to pay real money for these things, even if some are so ewww-inducing that you don't even want to see pictures of them (the jockstrap Nolan Ryan wore when he threw his 7th no-hitter, anyone?).

So an empty plastic squirt bottle, something you can easily get in a 99¢ store, except that this one was used by a Citi Field grounds crew man, and the item comes with photo proof documenting its actual (pre-)game use. How high would you bid if it were up for auction?

[silence]

Understood. An oddball piece doesn't have to be weird or gross to be of limited "gotta have it" interest.

But what if it were a similar item... I don't know if they had plastic squirt bottles back then... what if it were a similar item used at, say, Ebbets Field?