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View Full Version : Dead Presidents Giving Away Game-Used Jerseys & Other Craziness At Nats Finale



G1X
10-01-2009, 11:32 PM
For all those Nats fans who missed Wednesday's final home game, you missed one of the most exciting and improbable endings to any game in the team's first five years in Washington. What you also missed was something I've never seen or heard of at any major league game - dead Presidents with big heads handing out game-used jerseys! However, the evening's fun didn't begin or end with the Presidents' act of kindness or Justin Maxwell's two-out, walk-off grand slam on a 3-2 pitch from K-Rod.

When I arrived at Nationals Park about 30 minutes before game time, I dropped by the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation kiosk to see if they had any game-used items available. They had a rack of jerseys and a small tub of bats. Most of the jerseys were replicas (6200 tagging with no year tag) that were autographed, and most of the bats were generic black Rawlings pro models that had been autographed. However, much to my surprise, there were several alternate-red game worn jerseys from this year and a few game-used bats. The jerseys I saw were coaches such as Randy Knorr (bullpen) and Steve McCatty (pitching coach) and were autographed. Each was priced at $100. The game-used bats included several Felipe Lopez and one Gary Majewski (bullpen set-up man who had a fine season in 2005). These bats were also priced at $100. There could have been more game-used items that sold before I arrived (I didn't ask).

As I walked around the concourse, I ran across a season-ticket booth where they were having a raffle for game-used jerseys and hats. All you had to do was fill out an entry card. The jerseys and caps being given away were the blue "stars and stripes" alternates that they wore on occasion during the year.The gentleman at the booth told me that they would be drawing names during the 3rd, 5th, and 8th innings. Having been a winner in the Nat's first-ever "Shirt-Off-Their-Back" contest in 2006, I was hoping to be lucky once again.

The winners were announced on schedule. Five winners were announced in the 3rd inning, five again in the 5th, and 6 winners in the 8th inning. Each winner got the player's jersey and hat. The grand prize was a 40" Sony Bravia HDTV which I was really hoping to win! Unfortuantely, I was not lucky this year, but I happened to be near the booth when one of the winners picked up their prize. It was nice gamer of catcher Wil Nieves (#23) along with his cap. I was tempted to make an offer as the young lady appeared only mildly interested in her winnings, but I resisted the temptation.

Those of you familiar with Nats games are well-attuned to the President's race each evening involving the "big-headed" presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt) in which Teddy has never won. Before the drawing in the 8th inning, I noticed that George was in the walkway several sections over from me passing out jerseys. I didn't think much of it as I figured it was souvenir replicas from the gift shop. A minute or so later, out came Honest Abe with a huge pile of jerseys. I roamed close enough to tell that these were no souvenir jerseys! Before I could get to Abe for a closer look, he was madly flinging jerseys in all directions. A horde of fans (mostly teenagers) cornered Abe, and I was actually concerned that he might get trampled. By that time, I was caught in the middle of the fray. Abe somehow continued to hand out jerseys - there were easily 30 or more - without losing life or limb (or his head).

I badly wanted a jersey, but felt more compelled to back off and let the younger fans fight for these collectibles. Many of the shirts were BP tops (both blue and red style), but there were a few road greys from the 2005-2008 era. I did not see any home jerseys handed out, but there could have been a few that I missed. Most of the jerseys I saw were of fringe players such as Levale Speigner, Henry Mateo, etc. However, I did see a road grey of former all-star closer Chad Cordero and a red BP top of Jose Guillen.

I was hoping that the other two presidents (Teddy and Tom) would emerge with jerseys, but it didn't happen. Perhaps they were handing out jerseys on the other side of the park while we were scrambling for the goodies from George and Abe on our side (I certainly wasn't looking across the field at that point).

After the game, the players came out and thanked the fans. About a dozen boxes with clothing were brought out on the field and I immediately got excited thinking that it was more jerseys! Disappointingly, it was only tee shirts that were tossed into the crowd by the players. I was standing behind the Nats' dugout at that point, and grabbed a tee shirt that I quickly handed off to a young mom and her daughter. As everyone was leaving, out came fan-favorite Willie Harris with a handful of bats. He passed them out to several kids standing at the railing. The daughter of one of my co-workers ended up with a bat. It showed a ton of use and had so much pine tar gooed on the handle that my fingers are still sticking to the keyboards as I type this post. It was also uncracked - just a great bat!

Only a few of us were lingering by this point when out came the winning pitcher, journeyman Ron Villone, for an interview with the local broadcasting team. When he finished, he turned to the stands, waved a huge "thank you" to the fans, and hurled his glove and warmup shirt into the crowd.

Although I didn't make a score on any of the freebies, it was all quite a fun day at Nationals Park after spending most of the past two summers watching a mostly dismal team.

Tomorrow, I will post some photos of recent acquisitions of the Nats future!!!

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

Always looking for game-used Atlanta Falcons and WFL jerseys

pietraynor
10-04-2009, 11:05 AM
Mark..great story, love to read these kinds of things & kudos to the Nats for what they did! More teams should consider "giveaways" such as this. Jay.

LastingsMilledge85
10-04-2009, 11:35 AM
That's awesome did they have anything from Lastings Milledge?

lehmsbobby
10-04-2009, 11:40 AM
I was wondering if teams did this in their final games.

Did anyone else go to their team's final home game, or today's game and have something similar, or even just with players giving out their gear to the fans?

tknorm
10-04-2009, 12:56 PM
Wonderful story, Mark. thx for sharing!

dcrules01
10-04-2009, 01:40 PM
As bad as the Mets were this year you would think the front office would have done something like this.Great story

sox83cubs84
10-04-2009, 03:44 PM
I was wondering if teams did this in their final games.

Did anyone else go to their team's final home game, or today's game and have something similar, or even just with players giving out their gear to the fans?

Sometimes on season-ending days for teams not advancing into the postseason, hanging by the dugout immediately after the game might net you a cap or 2 or a bat. I didn't go to the Cubs game today (had flu all weekend...thankfully, not H1N1), but I've gotten stuff in the past. The bigest problem to this is getting close to the dugouts...all it takes is one cranky usher (of which there are plenty at the Unfriendly Confines) to foil your plans.:mad:

Dave M.
Chicago area

mwbosoxfan
10-04-2009, 04:01 PM
Last night at Fenway, they had a fan appreciation deal called "Shirts Off Our Backs". During the game, Red Sox officials randomly selected fans throughout the park (mostly kids from what I could see) and immediately after the game they had the fans come down one at a time as each Red Sox player took off their jersey (some signed them) and gave them to the fan. The fans got their picture taken with player. A rookie call up hit his first major league homerun in the game, so I heard that they let him keep his jersey. Pretty cool.

LastingsMilledge85
10-04-2009, 04:06 PM
As bad as the Mets were this year you would think the front office would have done something like this.Great story

Did you see what the players did after the game? The players tossed their hats into the stands and Anderson Hernandez gave his bat to a fan. Very respectable, for once the Mets think of their fans.

G1X
10-04-2009, 07:33 PM
The only Lastings Milledge items I saw at the Nats' last game were a few autographed baseballs being sold at the the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation kiosk.

I went to the Orioles finale today in Baltimore. They had a "Shirt-Off-My-Back" giveaway (actually had one at each of the final three games) that occurred before the game. There were only about a dozen jerseys given away on Sunday (not sure how many were given away on Friday and Saturday). Similar to the Fenway giveaway reported in a prior post in this thread, it was mostly kids who seemed to be picked at random. There were no entry slips, donations, etc.

The Orioles gave out various items during the game by random drawing of seat numbers. There were autographed bats, Southwest Airline vouchers, and other odds-and-ends. As Dave Meidema mentioned, it is not a bad idea to plant yourself near the dugout as I did at both the Nats and O's games. The only items I saw tossed into the stands at Camden Yards this afternoon were a couple of batting helmets and few balls. It was all very anti-climatic after the wild day in Washington on Wednesday.

One final note about the Nats. In addition to Wednesday's "Shirt-Off-My-Back" drawing that I discussed in my first post, they also had a "Shirt-Off-My-Back" drawing last Sunday (9/27). That drawing was a fundraising effort by the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation. During the last month of the season, they were selling raffle tickets for $5 each. You did not have to be present to win. They supposedly drew tickets for every player in uniform (including coaches).

When my name was drawn back in 2006, I won a nice red alternate of third-base coach Tony Beasley who now coaches third base for the Pirates (see photos below). A nice guy who deserves better than being with losing organizations (no offense to my fellow Nats fans and Pirates fans).

To cheer up my fellow Nats fans, I will try to post photos later this evening of some recent jersey and bat acquisitions of players being counted on in the Nat's future!

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

Always looking for game-used Atlanta Falcons and WFL jerseys, and Willie McGee and Darren Lewis items.

dcrules01
10-04-2009, 10:15 PM
Did you see what the players did after the game? The players tossed their hats into the stands and Anderson Hernandez gave his bat to a fan. Very respectable, for once the Mets think of their fans.

Yes I was shocked lol.

allstarsplus
10-04-2009, 10:42 PM
Mark - Great post!

The Nats finished the season with a 7 game win streak and while the play on the field at times was tough to watch there was a lot of great individual play and nightly Web Gems.

I got some amazing throwbacks at the end of the season when they put them in the Dream Foundation kiosk and I know someone who got an Adam Dunn gamer after the last game.

All in all, I enjoyed the Nationals this year and hope more members take the opportunity to come watch a game at Nats Park and enjoy Washington DC~!

LastingsMilledge85
10-05-2009, 12:30 AM
Yes I was shocked lol.

It was the greatest thing the Mets did this year. It really was incredible, and I wonder what else was given away.

OaklandAsFan
10-05-2009, 10:25 AM
I was wondering if teams did this in their final games.

Did anyone else go to their team's final home game, or today's game and have something similar, or even just with players giving out their gear to the fans?


I was up in Oakland for their last game of the season. Brad Ziegler handed out several undershirts and a pair of shoes as well as a bat to people in the stands (I got a shirt) Ryan Sweeney gave out about 4 bats (already have 2 so I didn't bother to ask) I got a bat for my daughter from Travis Buck (she loves him) and a bat from Landon Powell and a pair of game used spikes from Jack Cust.

Best part was the flight home to Phoenix which I shared with MC Hammer, Mark Ellis, Curt Young, Travis Buck and Scott Hairston (who sat next to me and my mother)

G1X
10-05-2009, 09:18 PM
One quick note that I forgot to mention on the Orioles final home game. They held a Silent Auction in the concourse that included several game-used items. There were Brian Roberts' cleats, a home jersey of first-base coach John Shelby with a black memorial arm band, and a Melvin Mora used BP-top. I may have left out an item or two, but those were the only two game-worn jerseys available.

As promised, I have posted photos (in a separate thread) of some recent jersey and bat acquisitions of players being counted on in the Washington Nationals future. Enjoy!

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

Always looking for Atlanta Falcons and WFL jerseys, and Willie McGee and Darren Lewis game-used items.

jdr3
10-12-2009, 04:52 PM
Mark,

I was at the season finale also and picked up the Knorr jersey. Additionally, Andrew Lang came through with his usual post season treasure trove and I was able to pick up one of the stars & stripes alternates from Craig Stammen.

allstarsplus
10-12-2009, 07:20 PM
Mark,

I was at the season finale also and picked up the Knorr jersey. Additionally, Andrew Lang came through with his usual post season treasure trove and I was able to pick up one of the stars & stripes alternates from Craig Stammen.

Nice 2009 jerseys!!!!

skyking26
10-12-2009, 08:06 PM
Mark,

I was at the season finale also and picked up the Knorr jersey. Additionally, Andrew Lang came through with his usual post season treasure trove and I was able to pick up one of the stars & stripes alternates from Craig Stammen.
I love the stars and stripes jerseys!

chakes89
10-12-2009, 09:04 PM
I wish I had that Craig Stammen jersey!

G1X
10-12-2009, 09:24 PM
Jim,

Great pickups! The price for the Knorr and other coaches' jerseys was excellent.

We forgot to mention the curly "W" blankets that the Nats were giving away at that last game (photo below). I thought that it was one of the best team "giveaways" I've ever received simply because it didn't have a sponsor's name/logo branded on it.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

Always looking for Falcons and WFL jerseys, and Willie McGee and Darren Lewis game-used items.