Help solve the great baseball mystery

[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.

[whitehse]

Nope they wouldnt throw them out due to the cost involved with buying the baseballs. It all depends on how many were left in the inventory. I would assume if just a few dozen were left they would either use them in game situations or just use them for batting practice, but throwing them out surely did not happen.

[cardsfan22]

I have discovered in the last few days that while Giamatti died in 1989 he did become the overall baseball commissioner before the 1989 season and therefore Bill White was president of the National League the entire 1989 and 1990 season. So while i think it is possible that some Giamatti balls were used in 1989 doesnt it seem a lot less likely they would carry over all the way to mid 1990?