LANCASTER, Pa. — The odds of finding a bat on the beach, are pretty slim, but finding one specifically from the Lancaster Barnstormers is hard to believe.
That considered, the ‘Stormers Bench Coach Troy Steffy thought the email he received was a scam.
"When I got the email, I read it three times because I thought it was [a] hoax or something. It was crazy," he said.
In the email, he was asked if the Barnstormers had a player on the team by the name of BWP.
That’s when Coach Steffy knew the picture was real because the Barnstormers use bats made by BWP in Brookville, Pennsylvania.
But, where was the bat found? You have to travel 2,880 miles across the country to Del Monte Beach, California to find it.
“I was just walking down the beach, looking for sea glass or driftwood or anything quantifying. It was right after high tide. I saw something up ahead of me, that was a little bit bigger than normal," said student Nevan Fournier. "So, I walk over to it and it’s a baseball bat."
That’s right a Lancaster Barnstormers' bat was found along the coast of a Pacific Ocean beach.
"[I] saw the picture [and] I was like, 'this is real!' This is one of our bats so it was [asking the question of] how did it get there? There were a lot of questions... there's still a lot of questions," said Coach Steffy.
Many questions indeed. Only players have access to the bats, as official bats aren’t given out or sold.
"Obviously it's weird that this bat somehow ended up on the West Coast but we were just in awe. We touched base with the team and I don't know if they wanted it back or see what they wanted to do with this because it's a mystery that we're all trying to solve," said Nolan Fournier, the brother of Nevan.
What’s even crazier, this bat just so happens to wash up on shore, weeks after the Barnstormers won the Atlantic League Championship
The 'Stormers have used the same bats for a handful of seasons, so it's difficult to tell how old the bat really is.
"It's cracked right here [and it reads] Lancaster Barnstormers JT 13 by BWP, [so] who knows how it ended up out here," said Nolan Fournier.
Baseball fans but never heard of the Atlantic League, let alone the Lancaster Barnstormers
The team wants the Fourniers to keep the bat, they even sent them some championship gear to hopefully capture new fans for life. After the holidays calm down, Coach Steffy would like to touch base with the family other than just email
However, at the end of the day, it’s still a mystery how this Barnstormers bat wound up on a beach in California.