AP News, June 5th, 2007
The Lowell Spinners don't have a first baseman. They do, however, have a fairly famous first base.
The Class A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox has bought on the memorabilia market _ and plans to use for the upcoming New York-Penn League season _ the first base that was at Yankee Stadium for Game 6 of the 2004 AL championship series.
In that game, Alex Rodriguez was called for interference after slapping the ball away from Boston pitcher Bronson Arroyo in a key play at first. The Red Sox went on to win the ALCS in seven games and swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series to end an 86-year championship drought.
"The slap was a defining moment of the ALCS," Spinners general manager Tim Bawmann said Tuesday. "It's a privilege for the Lowell Spinners to present this piece of Red Sox history to our fans as an interactive exhibit during Spinners games."
A Spinners spokesman declined to say how much the team paid for the bag, except to say that it was significant. Bawmann said he was not worried about losing the valuable artifact.
"As every baseball fan knows," he said, "you can't steal first base."
A short-season farm club populated largely with recent draft picks, Lowell has sold out every game since Aug. 2, 1999, thanks in part to promotions like a Jack Kerouac bobblehead and the world's largest game of "Duck, Duck, Goose."
Over the past two years, the Spinners have spent more than $40,000 donating equipment to local youth leagues willing to name teams after the Lowell club instead of the Yankees.
