Well… what now? A history of cancelled commemoratives, and a look at what may happen for 2020

I am sure you know, but the Major League Baseball season is in clear jeopardy. There are a number of possibilities of what may happen this season, that includes playing in Arizona, playing in Arizona and Florida, playing in stadiums without fans… and potentially not playing at all.

But before we dive into that, lets take a quick look at commemoratives that were made for events that ended up being cancelled.

I am going to go over the three biggest ones I can think of. There probably are some more I am missing, but these are the highlights.

1994 World Series Baseball

The story is not exciting, or anything fancy, but the 1994 season was cut short by strike, and there was no World Series played. There were tons of 1994 World Series baseballs produced though, and no use for them. Today, many still sit in their original boxes. I had two dozen of these at one point new in box, and sold them at $5 a piece. Today, there are many of them available everywhere, with the cheapest as of writing this being $6 for one on eBay.

I’ve seen some people use these for getting former Expos to sign them, as many believe the Expos would have made or won the world series had there been one. I’ve also seen people get autographs of movie actors who played characters of player in a World Series, such as in the movie Major League.

2001 Cal Ripken Jr’s Final Game

Cal Ripken Jr’s final game was supposed to be on September 30th 2001, as you can see above, there was a ball made for it. Well, Cal Ripken Jr ended up playing his final game on October 6th 2001 at Camden Yards. Why? The 9/11 terror attacks. Every team was set back, as sports stopped in the US for about a week plus, so the schedule was flipped around, and they made up the missed series after what was supposed to be the last games of the season. This ball is pretty tough to find, and you do not see a lot of them out there.

2003 Opening Series In Japan

The MLB season in 2003 was supposed to open in Tokyo, Japan. This would have been the 2nd Opening Series in Japan after 2000. Instead, the world had other plans. On March 18th the series was cancelled, citing the likelihood of the United States entering into war in Iraq. MLB officials met with US Homeland Security officials and Bud Selig decided to call it off. The Mariners were supposed to play the A’s. In 2012 and 2019, MLB went to Tokyo and made this match up happen, twice! This is a pretty rare baseball, but they are out there. A good bit of them made their way into spring training BP and bullpen bags, and I have seen a few rubbed ones out there, a nice what if.

So … what does 2020 (or 2021) have in store for us?

I am going to look over 3 scenarios, one where baseball is played at spring training facilities (whether it be Arizona or Florida is irrelevant), one where baseball is played in the normal stadiums without fans, and one where baseball is not played at all. I will also do a wrap up with some other potentials. In any scenario we already have 4 cancelled commemoratives. One for the London Series, one for the Puerto Rico Series, one for the Mexico Series, and of course, one for the All Star Game (presumed cancelled). We would also likely have a 5th if any baseballs for the Field of Dreams game were produced (also assuming this gets cancelled), but that’s unknown at this time.

Baseball is played at Spring Training facilities

If baseball is played at Spring Training facilities for the whole season, I would not expect any team specific full season commemoratives to be used. The stockpile of those are already at the stadiums, and there’s no point in moving. Obviously, under this plan it would not be Globe Life Field’s inaugural season so the ball would not get used anyway. We only had a few team specific single day commemoratives confirmed, but there were bound to be more. Obviously with the events corresponding with them not happening, they would not be used.

League wide commemoratives could still happen, I could see them using the Opening Day baseball, but chances would likely be slim, and I doubt they would get sold to the public without any MLB Authenticators at the stadiums (I am presuming this). If they play the Playoffs/World Series in AZ/FL I would expect those baseballs to get used and sold. Too much money to be missed out on!

Now of course, this all would mean the Twins 60th Season and Brewers 50th Anniversary baseballs would be cancelled, and never used.

Baseball is played in the normal stadiums with no fans

If baseball is played in stadiums without fans, a number of things could happen. It really depends if they start there or not, if they start there, I would assume we see Opening Day baseballs used, and the 3 planned “full” season commemorative be used (Rangers, Twins, Brewers). Full in quotes because the Brewers ball is supposedly only for a few games, but I’d expect them to use whatever they had in this scenario. I would expect all team specific single day commemorative to also not be used, as the events that correspond with them would presumably not happen. As for the Postseason and World Series presumed baseballs, I would expect them to be used.

A note on this is the Rangers could choose not to celebrate 2020 as the opening of their stadium, and postpone the commemorative to 2021 (it would need to be a new logo/ball because the “2020” is on the ball itself).

Baseball is not played at all

This would be a very sad scenario, but one that is extremely real and a possibility. If this does happen, obviously the 2020 Opening Day baseball, and the presumed 2020 World Series/Postseason baseballs would never be used. They could recycle the logo design, which would save some money and not shock me at all.

As for team specific baseballs, the single day commemorative without a date or year on them could be used the following season, such as the Larry Walker Number Retirement ball, or the Phillies WOF ball. To be fair, we have not seen the Walker baseball yet, and I am not sure what the deal is with it. This would apply to any other single game commemoratives we have not learned of yet.

For the Twins 60th Season ball, they could use it in 2021, as it has no dates on it, and since there was no season it would be accurate. The Brewers 50th Anniversary ball would technically be inaccurate, and it has the date on it. I believe it would get scrapped. The Rangers Inaugural Season at GLF ball would likely keep its same logo design but add the year 2021 for the 2021 season.

In all scenarios, and in conclusion

In conclusion, I do not know if the logos will be recycled, but the cancelled international series (and the Field of Dreams Game) will likely try to be rescheduled for future seasons with the same or similar opponents.

I hope baseball is played, and I hope I get a chance to get out there and snag some commemoratives. But it is out of your and my control, and all we can do is hope for the best. It ultimately will be what it will be.

Thanks for reading this article, and you can enjoy some of the other ones on my site while we wait for baseball. Check out the full commemorative list as well! I am planning to get the photo database up eventually, and add more resources to the site soon. I am always working to make this the best resource for anything commmemorative baseballs.

As always, if you have something interesting to share, want to reach out to me, or give some feedback on the site, email me at ericabneri@hallofcommemoratives.com I’d always love to hear from you all!