Tap Handle #580: Coors - Dayton Dragon

Tap size:  11.5"
Rarity:  Scarce
Mounting:  standard 3/8" ferrule on 5/16" anchor bolt

I was thrilled to pick up this Coors tap that represents the Dayton Dragons minor league baseball team a couple of years ago. This is another tap that experienced paint loss and that Kelly was able to touch up. According to the seller who I bought the tap from, his father was the distributor of Miller/Coors products for the Dragons, the Midwest, and other sports teams. Only 16 of these taps were ever made. All 16 of the tap handles were used in the baseball stadium during the season except for this one, and almost all of the taps are no longer in circulation...the other 15 handles were brought back to the distributor after the Miller/Coors distributorship was sold to a new owner. I contacted the manufacturer, who said that they were commissioned by a marketing company that works with Coors, and they handled the design. He was amazed that this tap was in such good shape, since tap handles with LEDs don’t last long and fall apart. There is a switch on the back between the ears that turns the LEDs on and off, and a battery compartment is just above that, and is kept closed by a screw. The LEDs in this tap are still working great, although one LED flashes faster than the other...sometimes they are both lit at the same time, but usually just one is lit at a time. In some of the photos I've taken you can see that an LED is lit. I have seen two others besides this one, but one of them was broken, and the other went for well over $200.

The Dayton Dragons are a Class A minor league baseball team based in Dayton, Ohio. They are affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds, and their home stadium is Fifth Third Field. In 2011, they broke the record for most consecutive sellouts by a professional sports team, selling out their 815th consecutive game, breaking the record formerly held by the Portland Trail Blazers. This led to the team being voted as one of the top ten hottest tickets in all of professional sports by Sports Illustrated. The Dragons came to Dayton in 2000, after being previously based in Rockford, Illinois, where they were called the Rockford Expos (1988-1992), Rockford Royals (1993-1994), Rockford Cubbies (1995-1998), and Rockford Reds (1999). In 2012, the Dragons franchise was said to be valued at $23 million, making the team the most valuable class A minor league franchise in the United States.

For more about Coors, see this post.

Dayton Dragon information and team mascot image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Click through to see more photos of this legendary tap...