Show Your Mets Stuff

[Gary Dunaier]

I don't own this, but I saw it for sale in the Mets Team Store at Citi Field. They had a 2009 Sean Green team-issued jersey, price $200... but this is no ordinary team-issued jersey - this is a shirt with a story. First, take a look at the jersey...



To me, a "team issued" jersey falls in a grey area. It's possible for a team to "issue" as many jerseys as they want to a player, knowing full well that the player is never going to wear it in a game, but the team can still say "maybe he didn't wear it, but we did issue it to him, it did hang in his locker," and charge Collector's prices for it. I consider myself knowledgeable about memorabilia, but I make no claims to being an expert, and I have no idea how those of you Net 54 people who are active in the world of uniforms feel about "team issued" jerseys, so take my comments with however many grains of salt as you wish.

That having been said, this jersey attracted my attention because of the Inaugural Season patch. You don't see too many of those anymore on the game-used racks at Citi Field. So I took a picture, and noted the MLB hologram number (LH439627) so I could research it later. Unfortunately, the MLB authentication site was no help, because it only identified the shirt as "NEW YORK METS HOME WHITE JERSEY," authentication session date 10/15/10. A quick check of an all-time numerical Mets roster showed that nobody named "Green" wore #48 in 2009.

However, a little Internet digging unearthed an article from the New York Daily News, 3/31/09 (link), which included this interesting factoid...

Reliever Sean Green was assigned No. 48 by the Mets after arriving in a trade from the Mariners, since his former No. 54 was already worn by bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello. But Green has learned that Aaron Heilman wore No. 48 as a Met. So [he] resolved to swap his number for anything else by Opening Day, rather than place an added bull's-eye on his back with comparisons to Heilman if he has any early struggles.

Sean Green wore #50 during the 2009 season. #48 went to Pat Misch.

[Gary Dunaier]

Here's a gem I just acquired... a Casey Stengel check written October 3, 1961, just a few days after he was named the manager of the Mets.

[Gary Dunaier]

I guess you'd have to consider me a Matt Harvey fan. I go to most of his home starts, and I have a transcript of WFAN broadcaster Howie Rose's call of his very first pitch in the majors. But even *I* have to say this is ridiculous!

At the MLB All-Star Fanfest last month, in the Authenticated Game-Used Memorabilia section of the MLB Clubhouse Store, they were asking $1,000 for this game-used baseball from Matt Harvey's Major League Debut.



But wait, there's more!

At the Amazin' Memorabilia kiosk at Citi Field on July 21, they had game-used baseballs from the Home Run Derby, attributed as to player and out. There was also a Matt Harvey autographed baseball, but I didn't think much of it at the time - the Home Run Derby balls were the star of this shot.



It wasn't until later that I noticed the label on the Harvey ball's cube, indicating that the ball was from his Major League Debut. So the next time I went to a game I went to the kiosk, and since the ball was no longer on display - I don't know if it was sold, or just in storage - I showed them the picture, which was still in my camera, and asked how much they were asking for it.

$2,000.

That's right.

Two thousand dollars.

'Nuff said.