Collecting Game-used: When the marks seem to make sense

This month's Collecting Game-used item isn't from deep in my stash or some treasure I had to research after finding it on the secondary market -- this one's ironclad but the condition here offers up some interesting questions.

It's a ball taken from the field of play just 20 days ago and you can see the precise pitch and its big-league moment after the jump. For me, this was a first -- my first Bo Bichette game-used item -- and I landed it on the cheap via the home team when the Blue Jays came to town. But, as you can see here, that's a pretty interesting mark where you can literally perhaps see the physics involved after a round ball hit a round bat spinning at a smooth (and documented) 2,046 revolutions per minute. And, if you view the video of it, it's not hard to imagine how those marks perhaps came to be.

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

THE BASICS ...
Game-used ball (MLB Authenticated): Toronto Blue Jays vs. Minnesota Twins, Sept. 21, 2021
Watch it in action: Click above or right here via MLB Film Room

The matchup: Toronto SS Bo Bichette vs. Twins SP Bailey Ober
The result: Foul ball in fourth inning -- a fourth consecutive foul during a seven-pitch at-bat ending as a strikeout

What's Buzz-worthy: The circular stain here is fascinating to me on this ball -- a $40 grab via the Twins -- with plenty of spin action seen on it and a minor surface mark inside the circle at the top of all that where some contact was made with the bat. Before I saw the video, I wondered if the ball might have glanced off the tip of Bichette's bat and then you can see precisely what happened at the clip. The ball spins its way right over the surface of his bat making very minor contact and then ricocheting off the other direction out of play where it was collected and then stickered to make its way into the market and to me. After his swing, Bichette then steps away from the plate, examining and running his hand up the barrel of his bat to see what marks may have been left there with his hand stopping at the nameplate area. What's interesting to me is the idea that the marks might come from the black ink from the nameplate on his Tucci Lumber TL-BO11-M bat. Is it possible? Yes. Is it definitive? Definitely not. But what I do know is that the swing shows the surface glance for sure as the ball hit the top side of his bat and not the meat of the barrel -- had that happened, the ball would have cost more for sure -- and I don't think the staining necessarily would be there, either. While that's my ideal thought, there also are two minor lines on a corresponding panel of the ball where it might have hit a hard edge or some netting our of play as well -- so that main stain could be from spinning into that, too. Either way, this is the ball and that is its entire life in play -- and I know that definitively thanks to MLB Authentication and the MLB Film Room.

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

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