Around The Card Room, Take 8

I never understand people who are mean to Minor League players.

Generally speaking, Minor League players are underpaid and are working hard to make the Majors. 

Be kind to the Minor Leaguers, they might just be nice back to you.  

My latest Around The Card Room item is a game-used bat from every Rays fans least favorite number one overall draft pick, Tim Beckham. The biggest problem with Tim was that he was a fairly average Major League player who was not Buster Posey. I am not going to rehash the whole saga of Tim Beckham, but here is a two sentence synopsis: 

The Rays selected high school shortstop Tim Beckham first overall in the 2008 Major League Draft ahead of Florida State catcher Buster Posey, Vanderbilt third baseman Pedro Alvarez, and others. Buster Posey helped the Giants win the 2010 World Series and no Rays fan has ever forgiven Tim Beckham for making this happen.  

Tim Beckham was a good player for the Durham Bulls and I never saw the need to complain about him. His numbers could have been better, but it was also clear he was a highly skilled player. Beckham was exciting and talented even though his name is not Buster Posey.  

In fact, Tim Beckham was one of the regular players on one of my favorite Durham Bulls teams. His second season with the Bulls was in 2013 and the team won the International League Championship. The featured Wil Myers, Chris Archer, Merril Kelly, Jake Odorizzi, Kevin Kiermaier, and many other Major League players. Pretty good company. 

As the President, Vice President, Treasurer, and only member of the Tim Beckham Fan Club (I am joking, kind of....) I was gifted a game used bat at the end of the 2013 season.

Here is the bat:  

There is a small, horizontal crack in the handle, which is why there are two pieces of tape wrapped the bat. Outside of the crack, it's a really nice game-used bat. Looking at all the ball marks, it was clearly used for awhile before it cracked.

Beckham signed the barrel with a silver paint pen. 

 You can see a few of the ball marks around the signature and the label on the bat.  

Here is the knob of the bat.....

Interesting that there are no markings here, just the manufacturer sticker. I own several used bats and I believe this is the only one without any sort of markings or identification on the knob. Maybe he was the only player on the team who used this brand of bat or it stood out without marking the knob. 

Here is the barrel of the bat, which has been cupped out.  

Overall, this Tim Beckham bat is one of my favorite Durham Bulls items in my baseball card room and it hangs prominently next to my Ozzie Smith bat.  

The Ozzie Smith bat needs a post one of these days.