Tim, great article! I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment on collecting teams, it can be very rewarding regardless of budget. Indeed, some of the best finds are those incredibly scarce gamers that no one bothered to keep. It is super what you did for mike! and I am sure he is thrilled with the new finds.

I collect Red Sox bats and have been trying to get a bat from each player who played from 1960 to the present. I never sought the pitchers bats because that would have been an impossible task. Dave, I totally agree that some of those "commons" are terribly uncommon. I have been locked in a few heated battles for some obscure bats, surely to the surprise of the lucky eBay seller or auction house. In many ways tracking down the obscure bat is even more rewarding than finding the "common" star bats. I started 25 years ago and have kept many of the original want lists that I would send snail mail to dealers and collectors looking for bats. It is fun to see how far the collection has come. Fast forward to today, and I need 5 bats to complete the collection: Felix Mantilla, Carmen Fanzone, George Smith, Ken Poulsen and Jeff Bianchi.

So if you come across any of those in your travels, drop me a line.

Best, Jeff

Soxbats at aol dot com