Fif Day of Crapmas – One Expensive Ring

I was halfheartedly looking to do something ring-related for today’s entry, but it appears I stumbled upon something more “investigative journalism”-related.

eBay item #130347490158 is for a 2000 Memphis Redbirds Pacific Coast League Championship ring. It has a Buy It Now price of $1999.99. That’s reasonable, for a 10kt gold AAA championship ring of an unknown player, right? Not to mention a shout-out to AutoZone Park on the side. Get in the zone!

I’m sure you know where I’m going with this, so yes, here’s the 2000 Memphis Redbirds roster:

John Ambrose, P
Jesus Ametller, 2B
Alan Benes, P
Andy Bevins, OF
Steve Bieser, CF-LF
Justin Brunette, P
Stubby Clapp, 2B
Victor Cole, P
Kevin Crafton, P
Jim Dougherty, P
Alex Eckelman, 2B
Bryan Eversgerd, P
Luis Garcia, SS
Chris Haas, 3B
Luther Hackman, P
Rick Heiserman, P
Darren Holmes, P
Thomas Howard, LF-CF
Chad Hutchinson, P
Mike James, P
Brian Johnson, C
Jason Karnuth, P
Mark Little, LF-RF
Lou Lucca, 3B
Eli Marrero, LF-RF
Pablo Martinez, SS
Mike Matthews, P
Allen McDill, P
Keith McDonald, C
Henry Mercedes, C
Matt Morris, P
Juan Munoz, OF
Mark Nussbeck, P
Jesse Orosco, P
Eduardo Perez, 1B-3B
Albert Pujols, 1B-LF
Fred Rath, P
Britt Reames, P
Chris Richard, 1B-RF
Jose Rodriguez, P
Bud Smith, P
Gene Stechschulte, P
Kennie Steenstra, P
Larry Sutton, 1B-RF
Fernando Tatis, 3B
Mark Thompson, P
Dave Wainhouse, P
Clint Weibl, P
Darrell Whitmore, OF-RF
Rick Wilkins, C
Jason Woolf, SS
Ernie Young , CF-RF

Wait, Albert or not, that team won a minor league championship?

The eBay listing, despite mentioning “Pujols” in the title, specifically says that this is not Bert’s ring. Personally, I think it’s a ploy to throw us off track, since an extra two grand would look quite good in the Pujols’ bank account. That would probably pay a month or so of their electric bill.

So who do you guys think is the guilty party? Who is the brokest player listed above? Do you go with a riches-to-rags guy like Chad Hutchinson or Bud Smith?

Do you take the nice-guy-turned-evil storyline of Stubby Clapp here? Eh, something tells me every night at his house Stubby Clapp makes a cup of hot chocolate, polishes off his 2000 PCL Championship ring, and goes to bed in a shirt and tie. Can’t be him.

Or…does Jesse Orosco need the extra dough to stuff $5 in an envelope for his 56 great-great grandkids this Christmas? (Alright, I feel like I’m in the .000001th percentile of Cardinal baseball knowledge…but I do not remember the Jesse Orosco era. Seeing TLR and Jocketty do their thing back then, I don’t doubt that it happened. But my brain is seriously blocking Jesse Orosco in a Cardinal uniform out of my head)

So if you have $2000 laying around, feel free to buy it and let us know whose ring you’ve got. If it was warmer outside, there’s no doubt in my mind I’d go all Ace Ventura on this mystery. Unfortunately your buddy HMW doesn’t do well in cold weather games, sorry.