The 2022 Commemorative Baseball Preview!

2023 Update: Added the rest of the season items, minus some retail baseballs

Baseball. Is. Back. I, like many of you, was deprived of news during the lockout, and that is why this preview is so late. I have been scrambling to contact my sources and reach out to those in the know to bring you this article! 2022 will be another fun season for commemoratives, and in this article I will be outlining everything that will be made and used this year as I hear. As usual, I will update this article throughout the season with more baseballs, details, and pictures. Since we always get surprises, I know there will be multiple updates. Quite honestly, everyone is a bit more out of the loop right now than normal, and that includes a lot of the people that I reach out to for information. The lockout and various other things have caused a bit of havoc all around. There is going to be likely a bit more speculation than usual in this preview.

To get us started, I want to mention a few things about commemoratives in general and things we are missing out on this season. I’ve heard from multiple sources that MLB wants to cut down on using league wide commemorative at least for this season. Personally, this is devastating news, as this means we miss out on Opening Day, Postseason, and any holiday baseballs. The Postseason with the silver ink were some of my absolute favorite balls each season. MLB is apparently trying to keep it to just the All Star Game festivities and the World Series. This also means no spring training baseballs, so for this season at least, these baseballs seem to be axed. It is truly surprising and unfortunate that we are going a bit backwards on this. As for the future, I will touch on this a bit more at the end of the article.

Overview

2022 Angels World Series 20th Anniversary – This season the Angels will be celebrating the 20th Anniversary of their 2002 World Series Team with a commemorative logo baseball to be used for all home games this season. A fairly generic logo, but not a bad one by any means. The classic Angels halo A logo, the 2002 year, and then after that it is just world champions and 20th anniversary on a home plate. They could have done some more with it. Overall, I do like it, but I do not like spending a whole season celebrating a World Series title from 20 years ago. This will be the first time a full season commemorative is dedicated to a World Series winning team. You can get these balls in game used form from Angels Authentics, see here for info on purchasing them. You can get these on eBay from a Rawlings dealer, here.

2022 Rangers 50th Anniversary – This season the Rangers will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of their franchise with a commemorative logo baseball to be used for all home games this season. This is a fantastic logo and ball, that Rangers cowboy hat with the T is fantastic, and the 50 as well as the years in a old timey down south style font is also really fun. The only issue I have with it is that line that goes through it, as it is a poor design carryover that in the colored version of the logo separates red and blue, but on the ball separates nothing and makes the 1972 and the 2022 almost illegible. This is my favorite logo so far this season! You can buy these on eBay, here. Photo is of mine that I was able to snag at Yankee Stadium on 5/8/22!

2022 Astros 60th Anniversary – This season the Houston Astros will be celebrating their 60th Anniversary, and with it comes a nice logo. Since they are celebrating all season, this ball will be used for all Astros home games this season, beside the games they wear the city connect jerseys and use the city connection commemorative logo baseballs. I love the mini Texas silhouette in the zero, I love the big 60 and the big diamond outline for the diamond anniversary. Its got the Astros star and H hat logo at the bottom as well as 1962 and 2022 in extremely small print on each side of that logo beside the even smaller Colts and Astros logos. That Colts logo is something super unique to be on a commemorative logo baseball, and I believe it is a first. The Texas state silhouette, dates, and the colts/Astros logos are quite small printing features even for Rawlings’ standards, so they could look a bit rough on the ball itself and become easily smudged in play or otherwise. Update: Turns out it does, these look really really bad with the small printing and Rawlings always struggles to get these tiny features done. You can get these on eBay from a Rawlings dealer, available here.

2022 Astros City Connect – This one is quite interesting. This is a commemorative baseball for the Astros that was used for the first time on Wednesday April 20th, then to be used on following home game Mondays. Teams with these connect jerseys do all different things, but a trend is usually wearing them on the same day of the week when playing at home. That being said, these things are quite hard to coordinate when there is another commemorative in play, the 60th Anniversary ball they will use for the rest of their home games. This is not unprecedented though, as the Reds when they celebrated their 150th Anniversary used an alternative logo whenever they wore throwback uniforms. But they also had trouble doing it correctly, and often used the wrong ball on the incorrect dates. This logo is extremely minimalist and simple. It is the classic H star hat logo, with a touch of their old planet in orbit logo. So it’s just an H, the star, and the orbiting planet. I am really not sure how I feel about this or what to make of it yet, but it is surely cool looking and unique. This is (I believe) the first time a commemorative logo is ever used by a team that is solely a team logo, and does not actually commemorative anything specific. You can get these on eBay from a Rawlings dealer, here.

I have been informed this baseball will be used when the Astros wear their city connect jerseys for the next two seasons as well. This is extremely strange, and I will be keeping an eye on it.

2022 Jim Kaat Number Retirement – On July 16th, the Minnesota Twins will be retiring Jim Kaat’s #36. In past years, the Twins have done a one day commemorative for the number retirement of Joe Mauer. This logo is awesome! The outline of him, the big 36, the pinstripes, a little Twins logo, and “KAAT” in uniform font. The logo seems a bit big, but I think this will be the on field version, but it is a bit borderline. Looking forward to seeing this one hit the field. Update: looks absolutely amazing rubbed up and in game use. Super job well done to the Twins! Contact Twins Authentics to buy one in GU form, or buy a new one here, on eBay from a Rawlings dealer.

2022 Futures Game – Since 2017, it has been a very similar logo of a Sirius XM ad on top, and “All Star Futures Game” in the wordmark font of the All Star Game that year. It has the date below that, and an MLB logo below that. Nothing exciting, quite small in size, and has been generic for a while now. The font slightly changes year to year in line with that All Star Game’s wordmark, and this one has a tiny bit of flair accordingly. You can get these on eBay from a Rawlings dealer, here.

2022 Home Run Derby – Since 2016, MLB has used the same logo for the Home Run Derby, the trophy, a T-Mobile ad, and the year. In 2018 they reduced the size of this logo to be consistent with other logo size changes, and it has been identical ever since. Nothing impressive here, and it is once again fairly booooring. You can get these on eBay from a Rawlings dealer, here.

2022 Home Run Derby Moneyball – Since 2016, MLB has used the same logo for the Home Run Derby, the trophy, a T-Mobile ad, and the year. In 2018 they reduced the size of this logo to be consistent with other logo size changes, and it has been identical ever since. Always the exact same logo as the normal HRD ball, with the exception of one of the two panels (the “Official Major League Baseball” panel) being a pink dyed leather. You can find this on eBay from a Rawlings dealer, here.

2022 All Star Game – A carbon copy of our unused 2020 All Star Game baseball, with the only change being the year. A quite small logo, somewhat lackluster, with the classic ASG special multi-colored stitching, and blue ink stamping. It has the MLB logo, it has the interlocking LA Dodgers logo, and … well, nothing else for the most part. It will be used July 19th at Dodger Stadium. You can find these direct from Rawlings or on eBay from a Rawlings dealer, here.

2022 All Star Game Batting Practice – Another baseball for the ASG, that currently I just wrote another post about. Used exclusively in batting practice for the Home Run Derby and All Star Game. Not for sale at retail.

2022 Will Clark Number Retirement – On July 30th, the Giants used this great commemorative baseball for the retirement of Will Clark’s #22. This is a great looking logo, and I suspect it will be one of the tougher ones to buy in GU form. Currently you can get these new from the Giants Authentics department only. I love the depiction of him, and the “Forever Giant”! You can get these in new condition here, on eBay from a Rawlings dealer.

2022 Phillies Wall of Fame – A yearly one day commemorative used by the Phillies since 2018 (minus 2020), this ball is unchanged from the past few years, and will look exactly like my picture of last year’s baseball. A fantastic logo, a plaque with the wall of fame wordmark, the Liberty Bell, and the Phillies script wordmark atop of it. It would be cool if they dated it each year, but beggars cannot be choosers, and we are happy to have this one. It will be used August 6th 2022 at Citizens Bank Park for Nationals At Phillies. They will have game used authenticated versions after the game. I am not currently sure if the Phillies have unsigned versions of this ball currently, but I do know they keep signed versions in stock. You can reach out to Phillies Authentics via email here to purchase. You can buy new versions here, on eBay from a trusted seller,

2022 Lou Whitaker Number Retirement – On August 6th, the Detroit Tigers will be retiring Lou Whitaker’s #1. In past years, the Tigers have done a one day commemorative for the number retirements of Alan Trammell, and Jack Morris. This logo is larger than the past few years, but the design is not really as clean. The autograph looks a bit odd, but overall I like it none the less.

2022 Ichiro Mariners HOF Induction – On August 27th, the Seattle Mariners will use a commemorative logo baseball for Ichiro’s induction into the Mariners Hall of Fame. It features Ichiro’s iconic batting stance, with his name, the Mariners wordmark and star logo, as well as Hall of Fame. Great ball!

On September 11th, the Oakland A’s commemorated the number retirement of Dave Stewart’s number 34 with one of the most plain boring logos I have ever seen. They didn’t even use Stewart’s full name, just putting a lined box with Stew 34 in number font. LAME!

2022 World Series – A decent logo, I liked the look of it a lot more than past years. Missing postseason again this year sadly. Love the pennant flags, the font is great, the size is decent, 2022, the MLB logo, and that is basically that for 2022’s slate of game used commemoratives! You can find this baseball here, on eBay from a Rawlings dealer

Unused

2022 Lou Gehrig Day – On June 2nd, ceremonial first pitch baseballs had a commemorative 2022 Lou Gehrig Day logo. This logo has is even better than last year, maybe the most stunning logo of the season and I love it. This year, it is HUGE like other retail balls. I was told there was an attempt to have it used in games that was unsuccessful. A fantastic baseball for a great cause, this one is a yearly favorite. They will NOT be available at retail, the large logo you can find resold from the original MLB Auction. These currently were on MLB Auction in signed form to raise money for ALS Research!

This year, we’re seeing double! There was the first set made with the large logo, and then a second set made exclusively with the small logo, meant to be better for autographs. Note this year’s version is undated… I wonder if that says this will be the logo going forward. These are only available via Adam Wilson’s charity raffle in the Just Baseballs/Under the Logo Facebook groups.

2022 Mexico Series – This season, there was supposed to be a Mexico series in June between the Marlins and Giants that was cancelled due to the lockout. It is strange we are getting a mockup of this ball so late (as of writing I first was informed of this on June 13th) and that it is not even in hand in the flesh yet. The logo is quite lame anyway, a fancy font for the Mexico Series wordmark, a weird “20 Mexico City 22” which seems silly, just put the year beside it, and a small MLB logo. We did not miss much with this one, but I never turn down a commemorative. It is quite similar to past years Mexico Series logo balls, except worse. You can buy these directly from Rawlings here.

2022 Jim Kaat Number Retirement Prototype/Retail – this ball, made in small quantity was released with a huge logo and a ring around the outside. Being a different variation of the Kaat ball used on field, I believe this was either a prototype for retail, or just a standard retail ball that did not get a full batch made.

2022 Albert Pujols 700th Home Run – Pujols once again gets a similar commemorative for a major achievement, and it’s large, good looking, and overall well done. My one gripe here is that they blew the uniform outline, with us just being able to see the 5 and not the birds on the bat. This one is larger than the last few they’ve done for him. Is he the man with the most commemoratives? This makes for his 4th! You can find it here, on eBay from a Rawlings dealer.

2022 Aaron Judge Home Run King – A unique logo retail baseball, Judge’s second. I bet fanatics pushed for this one. It is clunky, but serves its purpose. You can find this ball here, on eBay from a Rawlings dealer.’

2021 Shohei Ohtani MVP (this came out in like very early 2022 I believe) – Dual colored with some red ink, a nice commemoration of Ohtani’s achievements. Special ordered by fanatics. Find these on eBay, here from a Rawlings dealer.

2022 Mets Old Timers Day Citi/Non Citi – Still unsure exactly where to put these under or what to call them, but these two Old Timers Day commemoratives were late and simultaneous releases for the Mets first old timers day in years on August 27th. They used the Mets logo one in the actual on field old timers exhibition game, so it is somewhat of an exhibition ball. Guess is that the Citi version was the initial that got scrapped due to MLB rules not allowing sponsors on field most of the time. Curious if that changes in 2023… You can find some of these on eBay, here from a trusted seller.

Exhibition

2022 Home Run Derby X – Here’s something unique. MLB is running something called Home Run Derby X this season abroad, its a travelling home run derby event with former MLBers and other stars, using active MLB team names. It is kinda cool, kinda funky, and very strange. I did not know how to categorize it because the ball isn’t sold at retail, so I am calling it an Exhibition ball. They are able to be snagged at HRD X events around the world this season. I am intrigued and want to go to one and snag one!

Recap

In all, this year was quite an oddball. We are still dealing with major supply chain issues, and I believe this is the primary reason for the lack of commemoratives this year. I have already heard that MLB would like to bring back the Opening Day commemorative for next season. I am quite shocked by the lack of commemoratives this year regardless, as there’s always a long time to plan even with a lockout. I am upset the Mets and Orioles specifically are skipping out. I hope to expand a little more on this section of the article when I find out a bit more, as I always want a full story.

I would also like to mention I have updated the full commemorative master list as it has been a bit out of date, adding 2021, 2022, and Olympic baseballs. I am still working on hosting the database of photos, hopefully to be completed this season. I have also updated the history of Opening Day baseballs post, and will try to update some other older posts as the weeks go on.

Here is a link to Rawlings Amazon page where you can always find commemoratives (or standard ROMLBs) from 2023 or other years!

I will be updating this post throughout the season with more pics/info, and likely more baseballs! As always, thank you for reading, and you can always contact me via my Twitter @thefrownyface, email abnerieric@gmail.com or Instagram @EricAbneri if you have any questions, comments, or just want to chat!