Although that sounds like the punch-line of the world’s strangest dirty joke, today’s headline is no laughing matter in Oakland, California. This report comes by way of Hal McCoy of Cox News Service and Scott Miller of CBS Sportsline

For the last five years, a humidor at Coors Field has kept baseballs in a 70-degree and 50 percent humidity environment, which didn’t help Oakland’s visit to Coors last week.

The Athletics were shut out twice in a row, prompting catcher Jason Kendall to say, “I feel there should be an investigation of the humidor.”

Does he think the Rockies are storing contraband Cuban cigars in it?

Well, humidors to store baseballs may soon come to a ballpark near you.

Major League Baseball is considering the use of humidors in more parks, according to Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball operations and humidor guru. “This is the wave of the future. We will talk about putting humidors in other major-league parks at our operations meetings. The Rockies are ahead of the times.”

Rawlings stores its manufactured baseballs in Missouri at 70 degrees and 50 percent humidity, along with a few boxes of executive cigars.

Why a humidor?

To combat a problem that once plagued George Costanza, in an entirely different way.

The problem is shrinkage. And this is a “rest of the story” that you’re not likely to hear from Paul Harvey.

More after the jump.

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CAO has announced a new cigar line called Vision that will launch at next month’s Retail Tobacco Dealers of America annual convention and show in Las Vegas. The CAO Vision is the first Dominican-made CAO cigar.

The Vision will be available in three sizes: a 5×50 Robusto, a 6×50 Toro, and a 6.25×52 Torpedo. The cigars sport a Dominican Corojo wrapper, and a Dominican Piloto Cubano (cuban seed) Binder. The filler is a blend of Dominican, Nicaraguan and Brazilian tobacco. I’ll be posting a review of the cigar as soon as they are available for sampling.

Along with this being CAO’s first Dominican release, it is also being packged in an innovative way. What could be special about the way a cigar is packaged? CAO has another surprise for us.

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From Martin Fricker at The Mirror comes this piece on an upcoming auction of JFK memorabilia–including a couple of humidors still containing the cigars favored by President Kennedy:

This is history under the hammer… a bidding war for some of the most astonishing American memorabilia that has ever come on to the market.

Thousands of items that once belonged to John F Kennedy are up for grabs, many of them on internet auction site eBay.

But the glory pieces will be auctioned off in New York - including the watch he wore during his 1961 presidential inauguration and the flags that flew on his limousine when he was assassinated.

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