∀ This ball isn't that ball ... but imagine if it was.
That was my first thought when I dug out this one from my reserves for this Collecting Game-used series last night as St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas was two outs away from a career game -- a no-hitter that came up one strike short of reality -- Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
My second thought was, man, how much has the game-used world changed in just a few years with a couple new touches from MLB and MLB Authentication? The MLB Film Room didn't exist back when this baseball was used -- details below -- and the notation on the authentication is pretty basic ... real basic. That's been improved since then, too. This is a game-used ball with some nice use to it (came from a grab-bag style box) and with a couple of MLB All-Stars attached from a game a little earlier in their careers. Since there was no Film Room then I can't instantly call up a clip of the play and see it in action ... though there's a chance the game is online somewhere. I've been spoiled being able to photo-match or at least see videos for almost every ball I've had here recently ... I'll let the basics tell the story on this one this time.
Keep reading to see the details.
THE BASICS ...
Game-used ball (MLB Authenticated): Oakland A's vs. Texas Rangers -- July 27, 2014 (A's won it, 9-3)
Watch it in action: N/A
The matchup: Oakland C Stephen Vogt vs. Rangers SP Miles Mikolas
The result: Foul ball in fourth inning (and very possible it was used for pitches before that given sequences)
What's Buzz-worthy: This was Mikolas' fifth career start with the Rangers -- and only the fifth start of his career though he had pitched in 27 previous games for the Padres in 2012 and 2013 -- and the end result this time was his third loss of the year (fourth of his career). Mikolas allowed eight runs and walked four while striking out just one in four-plus innings. The photo up top (via Getty Images' publicly available site, a great resource for game-used collectors) is from the fifth when he was pulled, while this ball was from the first at-bat of a perfect fourth inning from the right-hander. It's a pretty standard ball with some nice use to it -- I have seen cleaner ones for sure. Mikolas was an All-Star with the Cardinals in 2018, winning a league-high 18 games, while Vogt was in his third season as a big-leaguer and was an All-Star the two years after this. More trivia for this particular game? Adrian Beltre hit his 391st career home run in the eighth inning. All in all, this ball isn't as flashy as others where you can watch its life on the diamond from start to finish but this one ain't bad ... for a grab-bag find.
>> See all past Collecting Game-used stories from Buzz here
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