Collecting Game-used: Landing a full count plus some ...

Two big names, one cool surprise.

My latest ball in this Collecting Game-used series is one that has two solid names attached to it -- Atlanta Braves 1B Matt Olson and former Braves SS Dansby Swanson from a game last season -- and it's got something else as part of its usage that I have not yet seen while tracking down and documenting a few dozen or so game-used balls.

The surprise? This one was used for an entire at-bat for one of them -- a full-count walk even -- after contact from the other giving it a life that's beyond many baseballs where they are used for a pitch or two and often for merely just one batter. Atop that, it's got some impressive discoloration from bat contact and even more impressive scuffing from ground contact that's just not as common as you might think with a lot of big-league baseballs that are prepped for play (so they're dirty enough to grip) but taken out if damage gets to be too much. (Sometimes you might get one ... but not often both.)

Keep reading to see the details this time ... and the ball in action.

THE BASICS ...
Game-used ball (MLB Authenticated): Atlanta Braves vs. Philadelphia Phillies, July 27, 2022
Watch it in action: Here vs. Swanson ... Here vs. Olson ... via MLB Film Room

The matchup: Phillies RP Brad Hand vs. Braves SS Dansby Swanson -- and also vs. Braves 1B Matt Olson
The result: One ground out and one full-count walk as part of a clean eighth inning in a 7-2 Phillies win

What's Buzz-worthy: This baseball's life might have had some previous usage not documented by the MLB Authentication team with all that blue-ink chaos -- the only contact here that's actually documented is with the Swanson shot. The rest of the highlights here are basically some pitch-and-catch between Hand and Phillies C J.T. Realmuto with the misses perhaps due to the scuffing on the ball from the groundout. If I was in a counting mood, I should be able to crunch the numbers and note this was the Xth walk of Olson's career and the same for Hand -- I like that, but just not today. Meanwhile, the ball comes from a game where Olson had previously homered (his 20th) and there are a lot of notables in both lineups ... but he only ones that matter for this ball are a pair of Braves All-Stars. I landed this one for around $35 with some discounts, which is perhaps a tad low given some good names and contact but hits and Ks are the ones that can and should command meatier premiums. It's also got one of the more-advanced MLB Authentication stickers with an extra code needed to reveal its info. An oddly interesting addition.

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

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