Teams negotiate to get back homerun balls

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by Gary Dunaier

This may be a dead issue as far as Net 54 is concerned, so more for the historical record than anything else, I came across a video of the Mets celebrating Santana's no-hitter (link here, then click on "Must C Classic: Santana finishes off Mets first no-no"), and at 1:03 we see Mets catcher Josh Thole handing Santana a baseball, which I presume is the one that was used to make the final out. Whether or not he still has it is unknown (it could be in his posession, the Mets might have asked for it for the Mets Museum, maybe even Cooperstown wants it, who knows?), but it was given to him.

Gary,
FWIW, this is not a huge surprise. No-hit pitchers are usually always given the last ball used in the game as their own personal trophy of sorts. What they do with it after would depend on the player...

BTW, when the BB HOF in Cooperstown calls after a no-hit game like this they typically ask for the uniform, hat and sometimes the cleats of the pitcher.

[mcgwirecom]

Was watching Matt Cains Perfect Game Wednesday night. The first thing I noticed after the last out was Brandon Belt sticking the ball in his back pocket...LOL. I hope he gave it back later.

[Gary Dunaier]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

No-hit pitchers are usually always given the last ball used in the game as their own personal trophy of sorts. What they do with it after would depend on the player...

I never thought of the "trophy" aspect of it. I know they put aside a player's first hit to give to him, but in this case I guess my collector's mentality was working overtime...

[RichardSimon]

btw - the Mets REPRINTED all the tickets to that Santana no hit game and are selling them for $50 apiece. Yeah, fifty bucks for a repro.
Pretty cheezy in my mind and I am a Mets fan.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-bi...9106--mlb.html

[mcgwirecom]

I heard about that. I'd like to see one of the reprints. In the past when a team reprinted a significant ticket they would often use the box office variety. And the would also leave on the code that tells when it was purchased so you could tell it was an "after the fact" type reprint. My favorite was Gaylord Perry's 300th win ticket. The Mariners actually printed "Gaylord Perry's 300th Win" right on the ticket! And some people think it's legit! But other teams like the Cardinals printed exact copies of the season holders tickets for McGwire's 62nd, 70th and 500th HRs. There is no way to tell the difference, so technically you would think a full box office ticket should be worth more. But they aren't, people still like the season style best.

[Brendan]

I've been to both Five Guys and In-N-Out. I have to say to I feel pretty "meh" on both of them. A local burger joint absolutely trumps Five Guys and In-N-Out in my opinion.

I've always wondered if anything more would come out of it for the guy who gave back the Jeter ball. Would some rich New York City company give him a high-paying job? It is certainly a possibility, but I know I wouldn't give the guy a job. Why would you want to hire someone stupid enough to give back a six figure ball for a couple of tickets?

[Gary Dunaier]

Unfortunately, it seems the reprints of the Santana tickets will not be identified as such. I'm a Mets season ticket holder (which means I'll be getting the reprints of the tickets for my seats free) and I asked my representative about this, and she e-mailed back "To my knowledge I do not believe there is any indication that they were reprinted and there is no difference from the originals."

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by Gary Dunaier

Unfortunately, it seems the reprints of the Santana tickets will not be identified as such. I'm a Mets season ticket holder (which means I'll be getting the reprints of the tickets for my seats free) and I asked my representative about this, and she e-mailed back "To my knowledge I do not believe there is any indication that they were reprinted and there is no difference from the originals."

Nice! Expect that the value of these tickets will get much lower as soon as the ticket collector crowd figures this out.