MLB’s New Tag & Release Program For Homers
Ephraim Schwartz, of InfoWorld, who just happened to catch George Brett’s pine-tar homer ball in 1983, shares a new plan by MLB on tracking “famous” homerun balls caught by fans:
MLB and IBM announced a program called Hologram last week that “when a fan catches a home run ball, a security guard will link up with the fan and place a unique hologram on the ball. This information will be wirelessly uploaded to MLB’s IBM DB2 9 data server. This way, if the fan decides to sell the ball to a retailer, potential buyers can verify its authenticity immediately online.”
This is an actual sticker placed on all licensed merchandise to stop unscrupulous retailers from making a buck. [Only the scrupulous retailers are allowed to do that.]
Of course, there’s one small issue with this plan. What if the security guard has a “plant” in the area near where the homer lands, and then he tags a ball that the plant brought in, and later they split the profits on the sale of it? Of course, no one can predict where a homer will land…so, the chances of this happening are probably greater than one in a million.
With all the “landmark” homers expected off the bat of Alex Rodriguez in the years to come, expect to see project “Hologram” at Yankees games, for sure.
