Provenance for "Game Used" balls, quite speculative at best?

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by markf31

IMO its almost impossible to prove provenance on vintage "game used" baseballs, is it not? How can an auction house describe a vintage ball as being "game used" without provenance beyond the consignor simply stating that it was "game used". Maybe I'm missing something?

Mark,
Interesting question!

Without a player, team or umpire writing a letter of provenance to accompany said ball it is a leap of faith. Occasionally a player will write info on the ball which provides the provenance. I believe that each item needs to be considered independently with regards to the likelihood of it actually being game used. I will say that many AH's use the term "game used" sparingly where others are very liberal with using this label. Without naming names, one AH currently has a bevy of "game balls" that, after looking at them carefully, I doubt the authenticity of many of them.

As you are probably aware, MLB now actually pulls items, balls, bases, equipment directly out of games and catalogues them along with holograms for authentication purposes. I personally do not collect these items, but many collectors do.

FWIW, when building my own collection of milestone game balls related to no-hitters and power pitching I have been very selective of which ones I pick up.
Very few make the cut...