Found In My Basement: Jason Kendall

When my son was born, we were fortunate to have friends with older boys who were extremely generous and happy to give us clothes and toys that their kids had outgrown. One of the items we received was the Baseball A B C book. As you can see below, the cover includes pictures of a signed Babe Ruth baseball, a glove, a bat, a Boston Red Sox hat, one of the oldest Major League Baseball franchises, and Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Jason Kendall.

While I was a big fan of Kendall, a three-time All Star and very good player, I feel like one of these things is not like the other.

The book published in 2001 includes pictures of other players from this era such as Sammy Sosa under A (for All Star), Ray Durham and Ken Griffey Jr. for B (bunt and batter respectively), Alex Rodriguez for E (ear flap), Randy Johnson for J (jacket) and P (pitcher), Pedro Martinez for R (righthander), Frank Thomas for O (on deck; was Thomas particularly known for being on deck more than other hitters?), and Cal Ripken for T (third base; I know he played third base at the end of his career but Ripken will always be known as a shortstop).

While it was nice to find Jason Kendall in my basement, he and the book are ready to move out of the basement.

Feel free to click here for more items Found In My Basement.