Big League Baseballs 2010 Special Event Commemorative Wish List

Big League Baseballs 2010 Commemorative Wish List

By BLB Admin on February 28th, 2010

BigLeagueBaseballs.com recently obtained the complete list of Rawlings Special Event Baseballs planned for the upcoming 2010 Major League Baseball season. Eight commemorative game balls will be used in 2010. That’s tied for the second fewest amount of commemorative balls produced for one season since Rawlings and MLB had a “break out year” for ‘commemoratives’ in 2000. Major Leaguers fielded at least 15 balls that year which were distributed commercially, not including up to two more seldom known Hall of Fame Game baseballs.

2007 was the slowest season for collectors, with only seven special event gamers, including the World Series and All-Star Game balls. The numbers began trending downwards in 2002, perhaps because of a lack of opportunities to host special occasions league-wide. But we’re not complaining. Consider, if you make too many of these celebratory baseballs, they could begin to lose their distinguishing appeal… right? Not only that, but the main purpose of producing a baseball with a commendatory logo is to help in recognizing and celebrating an exclusive event, achievement, or historic moment in the game of baseball, not to just appease our obsession for memorabilia and provide another awesome collectible ball to add to that bulging baseball display case… Right? Well, I suppose.

All that said, there are at least five opportunities for Official Major League Special Event Game Baseballs that we feel deserve serious consideration. If Big League Baseballs were in charge, and given the budget, here’s what you’d be able to snag at specific games and in retail outlets during the upcoming season:

Rawlings 2010 Taiwan Spring Series Game Ball, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. 中華職業棒球大聯盟 (Chinese Professional Baseball League – CPBL).

Major League Baseball teams participated in exhibition and regular season games overseas in the 2009 season, using commemorative game balls for a spring training exhibition series, followed by the regular season opening series, with both taking place in Eastern Asia: China and Japan respectively. The return to Eastern Asia for the 2010 season provided another opportunity for a commemorative game ball, but as of now there has been no announcement of such a baseball.

The main difference in the 2008 games and the 2010 series is that the upcoming event in Taiwan pits an MLB team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, against a team outside of the Majors, one that is comprised of players from the Chinese Professional Baseball League.

Rawlings 2010 Civil Rights Game Official Game Baseball

The Civil Rights Game has become an annual event; the 2010 match is the fourth installment. The game originally took place in Memphis, Tennessee and was a Spring Training exhibition game for two seasons. The intent of the Civil Rights game was to “embrace baseball’s history of African-American players,” as well as to generate interest for future black players (Wikipedia). The special event has since been relocated to Great American Ballpark in Cincinatti, with the Reds now hosting the game during the regular season. This season, the St. Louis Cardinals will visit on May 15th for the game.

To the best of our knowledge, no commemorative baseballs have been used for any of the previous games; this season would be as good as any to start a new tradition – even a Civil Rights Game Ceremonial 1st Pitch Baseball would serve the purpose for collectors and fans.

Chicago White Sox Frank Thomas Number Retirement Official Commemorative Game Baseball.

“The Big Hurt,” Frank Thomas, is the Chi-Sox all-time leading home run hitter and currently 18th on the Major Leagues’ all-time home run list. Thomas is one of only four players (including Babe Ruth) to have at least a .300 average, 500 HRs, 1,500 RBI, 1,000 runs and 1,500 walks in a career. He just recently announced his retirement from the Majors on February 12th, 2010. He is a lock for the Hall of Fame. But do these outstanding achievements earn him the right to be forever immortalized with his own commemorative game ball?

The fact is Major League Baseball has not produced a commemorative baseball honoring a retiring player since 2001, when both Cal Ripken, Jr. and Tony Gwynn left the Majors while being honored with commemorative baseballs in their final games. Aside from the Jackie Robinson Day Baseballs, only two players have been featured on game balls since: Reggie Jackson got his day and was honored at Old Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park in 2002, and Roberto Clemente Day 2004 (both balls pictured below). So why would MLB, via Commissioner Bud Selig, stamp its approval on a Frank Thomas Day special event game ball? Well, who says Major League Baseball has to spring for it?

The Chicago White Sox could contract Rawlings, most likely with the league’s approval, to produce their own private run of special event baseballs. This is one place where the Big Leagues could take a tip from the NHL, which for the past decade has apparently allowed its teams to deal directly with InGlasCo and its new owner Sher-Wood, producers of the league’s Official Game Pucks, when deciding on their team’s special event pucks. So why can’t MLB teams to work directly with Rawlings for Official Game Balls that will only be used and sold by the team itself?

Minnesota Twins 50th Anniversary Official Game Ball

The Minnesota Twins are already getting commemorative game balls to use for the entire 2010 season, the Target Field Inaugural Season Game Balls. But this season is also the team’s 50th Anniversary in Minnesota (it relocated from Washington D.C. after the 1960 season). The 50th year in the Twin Cities presents a unique opportunity, not just for the organization, but for Major League Baseball. Why not start a tradition of recognizing each team’s 50th year with a commemorative game ball? We wouldn’t want to see it get out of hand, with anniversary balls every decade. But 50 and 100? Why the heck not. Besides, how sweet would the 50th Anniversary logo (below) look on an Official Major League Baseball?

Rawlings 50th Anniversary of Bill Mazeroski’s 1960 World Series Clinching Home Run Baseball

Hey Pirates fans, are you ready to celebrate a World Series Championship in 2010?! Can you even remember the last time your team sniffed the Fall Classic, or even contended for the post-season? Well guess what, this is your year. Kind of. October 13, 2010 marks 50th anniversary of Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski’s 1960 Game 7 World Series clinching, walk-off home run against the vaunted New York Yankees. It would be hard to argue that it’s not the single greatest home run in the history of Major League Baseball, considering it’s the only Game 7 walk-off homer to ever in hit in the World Series. The hit propelled the underdog Pirates over the Golliath Yankees at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, in a tie game in the bottom of the 9th inning:

The Pittsburgh Pirates have already announced plans to construct a statue commemorating this historic event, intending to unveil the work at PNC Park on September 5th, Mazeroski’s 74th birthday. The reasonable fans in most of us know the organization should be lauded for its efforts, you couldn’t ask for anything else. Think about it, that $450,000 for the statue is more than the team spent this off-season on free agents that will actually make any impact on its chances of winning another World Series. Still, the baseball collectors in us say they’re only half way there in regards to celebrating a World Series victory in 2010. What better way to continue the celebration on the field and throughout the game than by using an Official Rawlings Commemorative Game Ball, featuring a logo with the exact likeness of the statue?

So we sent an email to the Pirates organization requesting exactly that, and despite any response whatsoever after about a month, we’ll continue to seek ways to recommend commemorative balls to their respective teams. Sure, it’s highly unlikely any of them will bite. But at the very least if these organizations all know baseball collector enthusiasts are out there, and eagerly awaiting more special event balls, they’ll have to take extra consideration the next time a memorable event is planned… Right?

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Have an idea for a commemorative ball you’d like to see this season, or any upcoming year? Add a response in the comments section of this post, or join the discussion in the new BigLeagueBaseballs.com Forum and let us know. We may just send your idea along to Rawlings, Major League Baseball and its teams. No guarantees anyone actually acknowledges our requests.