Collecting Game-used: Almost all of a Ryan Zimmerman at-bat

Not all gamers are super-impressive. In fact, some are nearly anonymous but since they are tied to a certain player there can be more appeal than other items that might look just like it.

This month's game-used piece? Well, it's the game-used ball above -- and it's arguably the least-impressive item of the bunch in this series so far but it's also one that cost less than the price of two blaster boxes and was in a mystery box from Fanatics. This one's all about some timing.

So, this time, we'll bring this ball's life back to life -- as least as best we can -- with its key player attached being Washington Nationals veteran Ryan Zimmerman, who had a pretty solid game on Monday and whose Nats career could be coming to an end this year.

You can keep reading to see the details.

THE BASICS ...
Game-used ball (MLB Authenticated): Washington Nationals vs. Philadelphia Phillies, Sept. 26, 2017
Watch it in action: Not this time that I could find ... but you can see the plays in the gallery below.

The matchup: Nationals 1B Ryan Zimmerman vs. Phillies SP Jake Thompson (third inning)
The result: Five of six pitches in an at-bat before this one ended up in the dirt and pulled out of play.

What's Buzz-worthy: As I said earlier, this one was in a Fanatics grab bag and I was glad to see this name attached vs. many of the other names that could have been, figuring names like Harper, Rendon, Turner and Hoskins would be out of play for the price. The play here is not all that eventful, nor is the game, but it was a 4-1 Phillies win but it is interesting in that the play details MLB Authentication added in recent years are on full display here. This ball was used for five pitches per its documentation (and, technically might have been used before Zimmerman but we'll never know for sure), getting Zimmerman to a full count during his 1,548th career game with the Nationals. He went 0-for-4 in the game with a pair of strikeouts but this at-bat, the 5,926th of his career per my calculations, wasn't one of those Ks. Thompson got the win in the game, his final start of the year and his sixth victory of his career. Getty Images, a key way to photo-match items, had photos of both players from this night game but there were no details as to when the images were taken ... so all I get with this one are the recap graphics you see below. Thompson has only had one win since this one -- he's 7-8 -- and in the was in the minors for the Tigers this year after playing in Korea. Will Zimmerman's final game be tonight? We'll see ...

>> See all past Collecting Game-used stories from Buzz here

--

Follow Buzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz or send email to BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com. 

>> Click here to buy baseball cards on BlowoutCards.com