Help solve the great baseball mystery

[cardsfan22]

I have a really interesting mystery and would be grateful to anyone that has any insight. I am a huge lifelong Cardinals fan and my childhood hero growing up was Jack Clark. A few years ago Jack sold some of his personal stuff from his career including his two Silver Slugger awards and some home run balls. Recently on an impulse (I usually dont buy a lot of sports memorabilia) I bought his 300th home run ball from the guy Jack sold it to back in 2007. I received the ball and a letter from Jack stating this was his 300th home run ball that he hit while on the Padres on July 30th, 1990 and he even signed the ball "My 300th". There was no doubt in my mind that the ball and the letter were indeed from Jack Clark as there are also pictures of him signing the ball.

Now here is where the mystery begins. As I was looking at the ball I noticed that it said "A. Bartlett Giamatti" as the National League President on the front. Out of curiosity I looked up online and discovered that Giamatti had served as National League President from 1986 until his sudden death in 1989. After his death William D. White became the president. So my obvious question was how could this ball be from a game in 1990 with Giamatti's name on it as president when he had been dead for a year? I have talked to a few people and done a bunch of research but so far no one can tell me 100% if it is possible for a ball used in 1990 to still have Giamatti as president on the ball. Do you think a team would use balls that still had Giamiatti as the president in a year when there was another president? There was also the fact that the lock-out occured at the beginning of 1990 so I wasnt sure if that would make a difference as well.

Any help solving this would be greatly appreciated!

[travrosty]

Originally Posted by cardsfan22

I have a really interesting mystery and would be grateful to anyone that has any insight. I am a huge lifelong Cardinals fan and my childhood hero growing up was Jack Clark. A few years ago Jack sold some of his personal stuff from his career including his two Silver Slugger awards and some home run balls. Recently on an impulse (I usually dont buy a lot of sports memorabilia) I bought his 300th home run ball from the guy Jack sold it to back in 2007. I received the ball and a letter from Jack stating this was his 300th home run ball that he hit while on the Padres on July 30th, 1990 and he even signed the ball "My 300th". There was no doubt in my mind that the ball and the letter were indeed from Jack Clark as there are also pictures of him signing the ball.

Now here is where the mystery begins. As I was looking at the ball I noticed that it said "A. Bartlett Giamatti" as the National League President on the front. Out of curiosity I looked up online and discovered that Giamatti had served as National League President from 1986 until his sudden death in 1989. After his death William D. White became the president. So my obvious question was how could this ball be from a game in 1990 with Giamatti's name on it as president when he had been dead for a year? I have talked to a few people and done a bunch of research but so far no one can tell me 100% if it is possible for a ball used in 1990 to still have Giamatti as president on the ball. Do you think a team would use balls that still had Giamiatti as the president in a year when there was another president? There was also the fact that the lock-out occured at the beginning of 1990 so I wasnt sure if that would make a difference as well.

Any help solving this would be greatly appreciated!

does anyone know where jack clark lives, maybe he can shed some light on it himself?

[BrandonG]

I had a similar question when it came to finding Giamatti baseballs inside Coleman boxes. Rawlings did do a reprint of the Giamatti ball for some reason, but it was my understanding that they were not used in games and were sold at discount in the 1990's. Does the ball have a Haiti stamp underneath the Rawlings logo? If not it is one of these reprints, if it does then it is from the actual period when Bart was President.

[jimq]

Here's a website that has what seems like pretty good information, including photos. Doesn't show anything Giamatti used in 1990 but it does show Giamatti in 1989.

I guess it's possible that the Padres could have had some leftovers from 89 but it seems odd that they would be using them in late July.


Interesting reading anyway, good luck on your search!

http://photos.bigleaguebaseballs.com...LL-010.JPG.php

[Splinte1941]

Jack Clark went through bankruptcy, did he not? Your obvious concern is that he was simply passing this ball off as his 300th, not realizing the problem with the ball's stamping, to make some extra cash. Whoops.

The Haiti stamp or lack thereof will provide you all the evidence you need. I hope you can find the guy you bought it from and maybe even Clark.

Can't MLB shed some light on this?

[Scott Garner]

What was the date of "Dude's" 300th HR?

At what point the game was played in the season could potentially be a factor. If the HR was hit late in the 1990 season I think you could eliminate that as a good probability, FWIW.

[cardsfan22]

Thank you for all the responses and for all the interesting insight! The date of the home run was July 30th, 1990 Padres vs Braves. The ball does have the Haiti stamp and definitely looks like a game used ball. I am going to try and attach a few pictures of the ball. I guess my only concern is that maybe Jack grabbed another ball that he had and said it was his 300th HR, whether intentional or not. There is writing on the ball in ink that looks pretty old that says 300th HR and the date and who he hit it off. He then signed "My 300th" when he sold it in 2007.

Another forum member sent me a private message and said in his experience in the industry often times balls from previous years are used even if the commissioner has changed, that especially back in 1990 they would never just throw away good balls. Also the fact that Giamatti died suddenly would make it even more likely they would still be using his stamped ball in 1990.

All in all I am leaning towards this being the actual ball, just funny how it just had to have the Giamatti stamp which would naturally make me question its authenticity.

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[Aquifer]

Considering that Kent Mercker's name is spelled wrong on the ball, it would make sense that Jack wrote it! As for believing anything he says, I'd be careful.

[mcgwirecom]

Wouldn't be the first time there was a descrepancy on a milestone HR ball. Remember Mickey's 500th? That was a fiasco! I was at the Guernseys auction where it was pulled.

[Splinte1941]

Originally Posted by Aquifer

Considering that Kent Mercker's name is spelled wrong on the ball, it would make sense that Jack wrote it! As for believing anything he says, I'd be careful.

I would agree with this and as I said before, considering The Dude's financial woes, smoke starts to appear. Hope I'm wrong.

[whitehse]

After working for a major league team for seven years and seeing the "ball vault" I would not be surprised that older balls would be used in a major league game. I doubt that the guy rubbing up the balls would have cared and I am certain that back then, MLB didn't pay much attention to this either. There would have been nobody that said "these are last years balls, we cannot use them" as they probably got mixed in with the current years shipment in the vault.

This does raise some red flags but I would not be at all surprised that a ball from '89 would be used halfway through the 1990 season.

[cardsfan22]

Thanks for the information from your experience working for a major league team! I have emailed Big League Baseballs with the story and with the information I have received so far and am hoping to get some more insight.

[drc]

I have no insight into this, but it does make sense that if Giamatti died suddenly and unexpectedly that they'd have a boatload of Giamatti balls left over. I don't know if would be their practice to just throw them out.