Mission accomplished- 14 year project finally completed!
 

I'm thrilled to have finished a 14 year project that I have been working on as part of my advanced Nolan Ryan collection.

Background story:
In 1998 I visited a baseball card store in Seattle named U-Trading on a business trip. Looking around the store I spotted a barrel of game used bats. While looking through them, I discovered a game used bat from Nolan Ryan's 7th no-hit catcher Mike Stanley. I bought the bat for $25 and was hooked! I was determined to find the game used bats of all 7 of Ryan's no-hit catchers and then get them signed and inscribed.

The photo below shows (from top to bottom) the game bats of Jeff Torborg (1st no-hitter), Art Kusnyer (2nd no-hitter), Tom Egan (3rd no-hitter). Ellie Rodriguez (4th no-hitter), Alan Ashby (5th no-hitter), John Russell (6th no-hitter) and Mike Stanley (7th no-hitter).

Anyway, it was no small challenge to find the bats of some of Ryan's catchers from the Angels era. Getting them all signed and inscribed provided an additional challenge. Some of the stories behind this are laughable.

My best story surrounds getting Ryan's 3rd no-hitter catcher, Tom Egan, to sign his bat at his house in Tempe, AZ while attending a friend's wedding a number of years ago. I had Egan's address from Smalling's book of baseball player addresses. I decided to drive over to Egan's house and attempt to catch him in the evening. I rang the doorbell and his wife answers the door. I introduced myself and asked if Tom was at home and whether he might be willing to sign the game used bat for me. She laughed and then called out "Hey Tom, stop taking out the trash. You have someone that would like you to sign an autograph for him!" Anyway, he answered the door in bare feet, shorts, tee shirt with a beer in his hand. All 3 of us got a chuckle at the humor of the scene. Egan proceeded to walk me out to my rental car a sign and inscribe his game used bat and a game ball from Ryan's 3rd no-hitter. One cool side note was that he noted that the LS game bat that I had him sign was quite rare as it was his preferred model when he 1st broke into the majors. He mentioned that his minor league coach HOF Eddie Matthews recommended this LS model to him. Egan said that he had the exact model bat sitting in his office. All in all, it was a terrific experiance, and one that I will certainly never forget.

Finding Ryan's 2nd no-hit catcher Art Kusnyer's bat provided a tremendous challenge, but thanks to my close friend Tom Duino I finally found one about two years ago. Kusnyer just signed the bat for me in Chicago last week.

Mission accomplished!

Great idea for a collection. Very nice!

That is pretty cool. Congrats.

Scott that's a great collection!! The story was awesome as well, thanks for sharing!!

Congrats! That's pretty cool!

Great work!! I really like that theme. Now, if you're an addict like me, you will now start looking for the bats of the shortstops, first basemen, etc.

Congrats
 

awsome, what a feat....great story!! Congrats!!

Great stories Mark. Nothing like finsihing what you start. Congratulations

Mark,

You don't know the half of it. I also collect the game used bats of all of Ryan's significant milestone catchers and key milestone strikeout victims. These themes are almost completed as well, including signatures and inscriptions. :eek:

Thanks all for all the well wishes!

Every collector hopefully gets to feel this satisfaction at some point in their collecting life.... :)

Congrats Scott

Awesome!

That is fantastic! People don't realize how tough it can be to find bats of older "no-name" players. Vintage game used bats, in general, can be rare, but if a fan was going to keep a broken bat as a souvenir, wouldn't it be a Willie Mays, a Hank Aaron, a Reggie Jackson, etc? I can't imagine too many people saved bats of "common" players. A lot of these type of players can be VERY tough. I'm glad to see you could complete your set.

Congrats!

Chris

Absolutely agree with the other sentiments! Congrats on choosing a project that would have scared most collectors away, and for having the tenacity to see it through (which is where most collectors, myself included, fall short on such grand projects). If anything, I'm envious of the satisfaction you must feel now that it's complete!

Keep up the good work, and may your other projects be as fruitful and inspiring as this one has been. Thank you for sharing!

:) I love the collection and the stories behind them!

Ricky Y

Jeez Scott. I can't believe you pulled that off! The resolve you demonstrated in completing this project, is something I will never know. Congrats Buddy!

Great job Scott. I know it's always a bit sad when completing a project, but wow that's a pretty cool project and something to be proud of.

Mike, Leon, Lance, Jimmy and all,
Thanks again!
Thank God I've got enough different crazy sub-themes going in the collection.
They will always present a huge challenge that it'll keep me going. :cool:

This is really cool and a great story. Keep us posted on the other themes, Scott!

Congrats Scott.
Very cool set of bats.
How will you display them?

Hi Mark,
They are stored in a custom bat rack that I hang them from in my game room.
BTW, they're organized in chronological order, FWIW.

Pictures? Show it to us.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I am just curious as to the reactions of these seven former players when you told them what you are trying to accomplish. I know in years past when I have presented a gamer to a former player for an autograph they almost all, to a man, take the bat and hold it by the handle and get lost in some far off place as they contemplate the bat itself.

What was the reactions of these players or was there just a lack of caring on their parts?

Brilliant collection! Love it!

Very cool! Congrats.

Jeff

Great accomplishment. To get the bats alone is an achievement. To get them signed... wow! That's some dedication.

Agreed - They look AWESOME

Hi Mark,
Here you go!

The 1st photo is of the Ryan 7 no-hit catcher game used bats on display. From left of photo, Jeff Torborg's bat (no-hitter # 1), Art Kusnyer (# 2), Tom Egan (# 3), Ellie Rodriguez (#4), Alan Ashby (# 5), John Russell (# 6), Mike Stanley (#7). The two remaining bats are gamers of Nolan Ryan circa 1986-1988 and Gino Petralli who was Ryan's 300 win catcher.

I also have included a look at my rack of game used signed and inscribed Nolan Ryan milestone strikeout victims and significant milestone catchers. From left of photo:
Sal Bando (Ryan's 1,000 K victim), Rich Reese (Ryan's single season ML record 383 K victim 1973), Ron Leflore (2,000 K), Cesar Geronimo (3,000 K), Tim Blackwell (Ryan K # 3,508- ties Walter Johnson for all-time K's), Brad Mills (Ryan K # 3,509- passes Walter Johnson for all-time K's), Danny Heep (4,000 K's), HOF Ricky Henderson (5,000 K's) Greg Myers (Ryan's 5,714th and final K), John Stephenson (Ryan's 1st K Catcher), Jerry Grote (Ryan's 1st win catcher), Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez (Ryan's final win and final K catcher).

It should be noted that I also have signed and inscribed game used bats of Ryan's 100th win, 200th win, 1000th K, 2000th K, 3000th K and 5000th K catchers (not shown here). :eek:

Note: I had a beautiful game used LS bat for Ryan's 4000th K catcher (corked!), but Mark Bailey, after agreeing to sign it TTM never returned it. This is the only time I've been burned on sending something TTM and not have a player return it, BTW. I've been very fortunate overall. I'm still looking for another to replace it. Anyone that can help me find one will have made a friend for life! I'd love to complete this theme as well.

very cool collection indeed....have you ever thought collecting the bats of the players who made the last outs in each of these no-hitters?

congrats!

Thanks!

Interesting. I have not ever considered collecting the bats of the guys that were the last outs of each Ryan's no-hitters, but I do have signed, inscribed baseballs of several of these guys.

Scott,
Very nice collection there. I'm glad to see that there are others here who are as OCD as I am.
Here is another idea to add to roarfoam's. In my experience, every no hitter has at least one spectacular or controversial play. How about a signed glove of the player with the spectacular catch or incredible infield diving stop?
Sorry if I added to your neurosis.
Best,
Mark

Me, OCD?? :p