Collecting Game-used: A piece from a long road to The Show

Detroit Tigers rookie relief pitcher Chase Lee after making his MLB debut last month. (@DETAuthentics photo)

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You probably don't know his name as he's a 26-year-old rookie in an MLB bullpen with more big-league innings in his five career games than he has big-league baseball cards. That count? Four-plus innings and zero big-league cards -- in other words, nothing Bowman at all before he got the call.

His name is Chase Lee and his nickname is "The Viper" -- that part's pretty big-league, actually -- and he made his MLB debut on April 22 with the Detroit Tigers. That day, he became the 23,429th player in league history, closing out a 2-0 loss to the Padres that was started by Jack Flaherty. Lee walked two and struck out one in just under two innings of work.

Three weeks to the day before that happened during a deep dive of game-used stuff from a major dealer in that realm, I added my latest item for this Collecting Game-used series and I added it for a few reasons -- but especially after I was intrigued by his story. Read this, I'll wait. Lee went from an average shortstop riding the bench on a club team with zero scholarship offers to being a failed walk-on who later figured out how to pitch -- he throws side-armed -- and came back to open tryouts the next year, 2019. That's when he made the Alabama Crimson Tide squad to start a three-year run that finished with a 9-0 college record and a 1.87 ERA and as a sixth-round pick of the Texas Rangers in 2021.

That sounds pretty strong, right? Well, all that was still years ago. Lee's path to Detroit and his first strikeout ball he's holding up top had more than a few twists and turns with a 7-11 record in those last five MiLB seasons with no MLB-approved baseball prospect cards (what we care about most here) but with 249 strikeouts in 182 innings -- that part's pretty big-league, too.

So, what is there to collect? Well, I'm sure somewhere deep in my Crimson Tide stash is a small sample of something from of his few Panini Prizm or Elite Extra Edition cards from way back in 2021 -- he's got cards in those sets and nothing since save for potential MiLB team set cards and game-used memorabilia. So, when I spotted a gamer I opted to break one of my basic rules and dip down into the minors for a game-used piece of his story to join my collection, figuring I had some time to craft this item before his possible call from a new team. Meanwhile, to my surprise, that's already happened. (Here's a newer story about his path and this one is even better.)

You can keep reading to see the details ... and the item in action.

THE BASICS ...
Game-used MiLB jersey (no authentication): Round Rock Express home jersey used during the 2022 and 2023 seasons (via Kruk Jerseys which confirmed this jersey was bought this in a bulk lot from the team)
Watch it in action: Some kind of actual footage, I suppose could be found online, but I'll settle for a couple of Pacific Coast League Pitcher Of The Week award graphics (see below) and another nice find, his 2023 Choice Round Rock baseball card showing him in this model of jersey, which is quite likely this exact jersey but can't be 110-percent verified. (There's no ironclad stickering system for MiLB stuff noting its info from when it was pulled from use like an MLB Authenticated item.) If you open the graphic below and compare it full size to the jersey image above, though, there are some matching loose threads in several positions such as some inside the "P" and on the number -- though not everything matches precisely. Why? This jersey was likely used far longer than just May. One obvious red thread on the jersey in the image below is still there long and loose among several unique flaws, so I'm confident it's a match. After I dug out this jersey for more detail images vs. the initial photo above, I found even more -- see it all in the gallery below.

What's Buzz-worthy: There's no MLB Authentication program for MiLB stuff -- just knowing the custody chain and then the old-fashioned photo-matching routines between unique details of the item and then maybe finding high-resolution images are how you can determine authenticity and possibly match an item. One unique detail here on the back that might make for another easy match if a photo presented itself is the nameplate where "Lee" likely replaced somebody else before the jersey was issued to him as MiLB teams recycle equipment and use stuff as long as possible. I broke my rule (just a preference) of sticking just to MLB gamers for Crimson Tide notables, but I have no doubts that this one, while a MiLB gamer, is pretty big-league, too.

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