Today I am finally going to put to rest the series of posts that I started on the swag that I scored from reader Michael in exchange for making him a custom 1938 Cubs card set. Funny how you get thrown off track by silly things like the World Series. I suppose todays episode really shouldn’t be titled “Cards for Customs” since there’s nary a card to be seen. I guess today is more “Memorabilia for Customs”.

Just a little background, as were emailing back and forth, discussing the trade, Michael cryptically wrote “I happen to have a job that is in the business of baseball, and as a result, I am occasionally around players in an environment where autographs are given in person. I have one former Met that I will include in the box. He wasn’t bad.” I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I kind of remember thinking at the time maybe it was someone along the lines of Edgardo Alfonzo or someone like that. Shortly after, Mike’s box(es) showed up on my doorstep. The first one, which also held the cards he sent, had this packed in with all them cardboard gems.

Admittedly, when I first took this sucker out of the box, I had a bit of trouble trying to decipher this signature. I started to get a bit of an inkling from the last name, but then thought “Nah. No way he sent me a Nolan Ryan ball.” Sure enough, after a quick scan of Nolan Ryan autographs on the interwebs, it is indeed a baseball signed by the Ryan Express. Too cool. This is actually only the second signed ball that I own. The other one is autographed by another Mets Great, Joe McEwing. Michael explained to me that back in 2000, he was a buyer for a national sporting good chain and Nike had invited a bunch of buyers down to the All-Star game in Atlanta, where they had Nolan Ryan speak at a VIP dinner. Afterwards he signed ball for all the customers in attendance.

The final piece that Michael sent my way was a Wilson Model A2000 left-handed first baseman’s mitt.

Aside from being a really fancy piece of baseball equipment, what’s so special about a Wilson Model A2000 left-handed first baseman’s mitt, you ask? Well, when you flip it over, you see this:

Yessir. That is an official Ike Davis game model mitt, as in the same exact glove that Ike uses on the field. Turns out that Michael is a big deal muckety-muck at a certain glove company that shall remain nameless (or not). It also turns out that the Mets were set to do something with Ike at a charity event and needed some extra gloves for it. I assume they were giving them away or auctioning them off at the event. Anyway, at the last minute, they switched it up to David Wright and didn’t need the Davis gloves after all. I wonder if that had to do with Ike getting hurt, which further makes me wonder if Wright tripped up Ike on purpose just so he could be the star of the charity event. Hmmm. That might need further investigation. Long story short, Mike ended up with a few extra Ike Davis gloves and was awesomely generous enough to pass one on to me.

I don’t want to down play how cool all the other stuff he sent is, because it’s all incredible and I really love every individual piece, I think that glove is by far my favorite, just because it’s something that an ordinary person couldn’t normally lay their hands on. I really like that ’58 Stan Musial that he gave me, and that’s not a card that I would normally be able to get do to my bank account, but it is something that could pretty easily be had if I did have the funds. Same goes for the ’53 Campy and even the Nolan Ryan signed ball at the top of this post. As far as I know, there is now way I could get my hand on this glove other than somebody randomly contacting me on the interwebs and asking if I would make a custom card set for them. That’s pretty damn cool if you ask me.

Tags: Autographs, glove, Ike Davis, Nolan Ryan
Filed Under: Trade by slangon
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