Rockford Baseball Team Has Its Gear Stolen in Battle Creek

Is nothing sacred? Is there a thriving black market for stolen baseball gear?

This past weekend, the Rockford Rivets had approximately $50,000 worth of baseball equipment stolen from the team bus, while the team was staying overnight in Battle Creek. The Rivets were in Battle Creek to play the Battle Jacks before moving over to Kalamazoo to play two games with the Growlers on Sunday and Monday.

"Bats, balls, player bags," all of that stuff was taken. The fortunate thing was a lot of the uniforms were being washed by Battle Creek that night at their stadium so that we could take them on the road the next day. But we did lose some uniforms that were in the bags." - Rockford Rivers General Manager Chad Bauer in the Rockford Register-Star.

Later on Sunday, the story turns positive, when the Rivets arrived at Homer Stryker Field.

"People in the area heard what had happened and they were literally calling Dick's and buying $50 and $100 gift cards saying, 'Hey. Put it toward their bill' So, that was really cool. ... Kalamazoo (Growlers) helped us out a little bit, too. They gave us some bats, helmets, and catcher's gear and stuff. It was nice. It's cool to see that there's still a lot of good people out there." - - Chad Bauer.

Another happy note for the Rivets is they swept their four-game trip to Michigan, winning both games in Battle Creek and then both in Kalamazoo.