Elliot Johnson should think twice before letting Matt Joyce borrow his stuff.
During the first inning of what turned out to be a 12-6 slaughter of the Minnesota Twins, Joyce stepped to the plate and hit a nice two-run home run. The hit scored the first two runs of the game and served as the warning shot of the ambush to come.
The homer was also hit with Elliot Johnson’s bat.
If you look closely at the picture above, you will see that Joyce was using a bat with the No. 9 on the knob of the bat, not his jersey No. 20.
Having nothing else planned on a Friday night I began to research into the origin and proper owner of the bat. Unfortunately, the number on the knob doesn’t come with an underline like my favorite card game to differentiate the nines from sixes. However, with the jersey number six belonging to Rays third base coach Tom Foley, it was safe to assume the bat didn’t belong to him.
That left the only option as No. 9 himself, Mr. Elliot Johnson. After posing the question on my Twitter, because I clearly wasn’t sleeping without confirmation, Johnson responded and confirmed via Twitter that the bat was indeed his.
Yup! Nice eye! RT @jwilburg: was @sweetswingin20 home run hit with @elliotjohnson9 bat? #rays
— Elliot Johnson (@ElliotJohnson9) August 11, 2012
Johnson also added that Joyce broke the bat, but it’s cool since a homer was hit with it.
We’ve all been there in principal. You let someone borrow a tool, appliance or other object and they don’t return it in the condition they received it. The difference is my neighbor isn’t hitting a two-run homer with my hammer or lawn mower.
Jamal Wilburg is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.
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