The Big Stick

Some surprises are bad -- you know, like the surprise that the person you thought you were dating just got engaged to someone else (not that that has happened to me, mind you). Others are good -- like finding a $20 bill in the pocket of a pair of pants you haven't worn in a while.

Others, though, are so good that the only thing you can say about them is "WOW."

I had a WOW moment today. It might make you say the same.

For context:  I've been working a lot lately. Yesterday, for example, I got to the office at 6:45 AM and I didn't leave the office until 10:30 PM. I was in depositions all day (and night). Then, this morning, I got up and into the office by 6:40 and didn't leave until 6:45 PM.

My wife had made the decision a couple of weeks ago to get a present for me. Today, she decided that I had been working so hard that I needed the pick-me-up of the present that she got for me.

Yes, it's a bat. A Rawlings Adirondack Pro bat -- never used, I'm quite sure. Can you read the name on it?

Yes. Yes it is.

It's a PSA/DNA certified autographed bat from Robin Yount.

WOW.

Here's the backstory:

My wife does a lot of volunteer work for a couple of local charities, including the local art center called the Spruill Art Center. Spruill is a nonprofit center which helps provide art classes to thousands of students in the northern Atlanta area each year. Spruill enjoys the benefits of its association with the women who are members of the Spruill Guild.

Each year, the Guild has a big fundraiser bash called Artistic Affair. It's a "black-tie" (these days, it's "wear a suit") event that features a live auction and a silent auction. Every year, the Guild works to get local businesses and people to donate items of value to be auctioned off in those two auctions to raise money for the Art Center. One issue they have had in the past is that most of the items for auction while have a lean toward a particular gender lean toward feminine items -- women's jewelry, for example.

In trying to find more "masculine" items for men to bid on, this year the Guild was put into contact with a company that focuses on supplying signed sports items for consignment for charity auctions. The company is guaranteed a far lower amount of money on the sale than it might otherwise get, and the Guild will keep the rest. Some of the items up for auction this year will include a Peyton Manning-signed helmet, a Herschel Walker-signed helmet, Chipper Jones and Bobby Cox autographed baseballs, and Master's Tournament flags signed by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.

Some pretty awesome stuff.

The women with the Guild, for the most part, do not have sports fanatics for husbands. Except my wife, of course. The ladies involved know I am a baseball card collector, so my wife was nominated to work with the guy on identifying the items to put up for sale. In those discussions, the guy brought up this bat.

And now, it's mine.

Like I said during Card Chat when I mentioned that my wife often encourages me to spend more money on cards, I'm a very lucky man.

And I now carry a Big Stick.

A Gift from my Wife

I read with bemusement the trials and tribulations that the blog world's favorite feathered friend, Night Owl, endured with his wife making an effort and buying him baseball cards for Christmas. Sure, they turned out to be all autographs from his absolute least favorite team -- the Giants -- and included three autographs of his least favorite player ever, Will Clark. 

On the other hand, I have been pretty lucky. I mean, who has in-laws who would drive 2 hours with a pickup truck bed full of binders as a Christmas gift? Even if the binders contained a lot of cards from that late 1980s/early 1990s time period that all of us have every card from in bushel baskets, it still had some pretty damn nice autographs, oddballs, and even some pretty rare Derek Jeter cards of him in high school (note: I still have those cards too).

This year, I did not get any cards. Well, not directly -- I got cash that I took to my local card show and blew on a bunch of stuff I haven't shown off yet. I did get one baseball item, though, from my wife. 

She did better than Night Owl's wife did:

It's one damn sturdy bottle opener, and it's made from what purports to be a "Game Used Bat from the Milwaukee Brewers."

My first thought was, of course, to be completely dubious of that claim. I almost did not want to be responsible for a bat having been carved up. Then, I was wondering where the pine tar is. 

In my looking at the bottle opener, though, I saw something on the end with the hanging rope:

It's an MLB authentication hologram. I looked it up, and the print out informed me:

Major League Baseball Bat Bottle Opener made with the handle section. A piece of Game Used broken bat from Cardinals @ Brewers on 9-20-2006/Damian Miller Cracked bat, 7th Inning

I looked it up. In the bottom of the 7th inning of a scoreless game, LaCrosse County native Damian Miller stepped up to the plate. Miller was actually a Minnesota Twins draft pick in 1990 -- in the 20th round. That was the year that the Brewers were supposed to take me in the 48th round, but I guess that one game that I played in front of a Brewers scout that summer (and hit a homerun) did not impress them enough to get me on their radar. Miller had come to Milwaukee for the 2005 season as a free agent after bouncing from Minnesota to Arizona in the expansion draft and, from there, to the Cubs and Oakland. 

Miller was the second hitter in the inning, having followed third baseman David Bell. Bell flew out to deep right field for the first out. I must admit to not recalling the David Bell era in Milwaukee. It lasted all of 53 games and it was the end of his career, so I guess I should be forgiven for that.

On the mound for the Cardinals was Jeff Suppan. Suppan was in the final year of his three-year contract with the Cardinals, and he positively owned Milwaukee. Over his career, he sported a 13-2 record over 23 appearances (21 starts) with a 3.20 ERA -- his best as against any major league team -- in 135 innings. Maybe that is why, in the offseason that followed, the Brewers gave him a stupid 4-year contract for $42 million. It was such a stupid contract that the Brewers decided in June of that fourth year (2010) just to cut him.

Miller took the first pitch from Suppan for a ball. The next pitch, he broke his bat and hit a weak ground ball to shortstop. Miller lost a bat, and, just ten years later, I gained a bottle opener.

Thankfully, the Brewers ended up winning that game thanks to a Geoff Jenkins walk-off home run off a guy named Tyler Johnson -- one of those interchangeable left-handed reliever parts that Tony LaRussa and Mike Matheny love in St. Louis. Of course, the Cardinals went on to win the World Series that year, so I guess they'd probably take that.

In the end, I'd say I did a lot better than Night Owl did. My wife put a lot of thought into this gift and did very, very well indeed.