When you’ve been collecting for over 25 years and discover items you didn’t yet know existed, it’s pretty exciting! Today we’re spotlighting such a find, some great minor league collectibles from the Tacoma, Washington, Triple-A club.
Mr. Kevin Kalal worked for the Tacoma franchise first as Public Relations Director from 1991-1994, when the team was the Oakland A’s Triple-A affiliate and played as the Tigers; and then as Assistant General Manager, Director of Baseball Operations from 1995-2007, during which time the team was renamed to the Rainiers and became a member of the Seattle Mariners organization.
Kevin recently put several Official Pacific Coast League balls up for sale from various years that were stamped on the sweet spot with the team’s Opening Night date. Since our focus at minorleaguebaseballs.com is official game balls, we reached out to ask Kevin about the origin of these baseballs. He revealed that he had overseen what became a Tacoma tradition.
“The owner of the club was George Foster (not the former Cincinnati Reds player),” Kevin wrote, “and he began the tradition of making Opening Night balls in 1993 and his final season as the owner was 2006. In addition to the balls, he had commemorative bats made for the fiull-time staff members and other VIPs of the club.
“I was responsible for having the balls imprinted (usually a case of balls (10 dozen)) and what was left over from the owner’s gifting were used in the Opening Night Game (usually about 5 dozen balls).”
You can see those we managed to snag in the “All-Star Games and Special Events” section (1996, 1997, 2004, 2006). A couple of samples are below.
Many thanks to Kevin Kalal for this information; to former team owner George Foster for creating such a wonderful baseball tradition; and to both men for their work in minor league baseball and the community of Tacoma. It’s a great story and a reminder to us collectors that no matter how long we spend in this hobby there are still hidden gems to be found. It’s just one of the many reasons that minor league baseball is the best baseball experience!
A quick promotional note: The Collector’s Guide is still available for sale on this site and on Amazon.com, but these balls will be featured in the revised Edition, along with updates for the 2021 season. Look for it soon!
-Tony Baseballs