Baseball Collectibles

If you happened to be driving along route 6 in Woodbury about a decade and witnessed a 6'3" 200 lb 43-year-old man whacking a giant sized wiffle ball with a nightstick sized yellow plastic bat - the kind designed for 3 year olds - thank you for not calling the police or Belleview Medical Hospital. That was me. You see, my brother and his wife visited with their son, Evan, who was three years old at the time. Like almost all other uncles in America, Japan, Cuba, Mexico and lots of other places, I have this image of my nephew taking up that sport synonymous with spring itself. So far, Barry Bonds has nothing to fear. Evan was more interested in shoveling little stones into his empty Play-Doh can than practicing at being the next home run king. I hit some good whacks though. And there is always next visit.

Encyclopedias like Encarta state "the first organized baseball club was formed in 1842 by a group of young men in New York City. This group, led by Alexander Cartwright, called their club the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club. The Knickerbockers developed a set of 20 rules, first published in 1845, that became the foundation of modern baseball." According to a 1908 report of the Spalding Commission appointed to research the origin of baseball; "Baseball was invented in 1839 at Cooperstown, NY by Abner Doubleday-afterward General Doubleday, a hero of the battle of Gettysburg-and the foundation of this invention was an American children's game call one old cat." Both of these reports seem incorrect. Jane Austin made mention of baseball in her 1798 novel Northhanger Abbey: "Is it not very wonderful that Catherine who had by nature nothing heroic about her, should prefer cricket, baseball, riding on horseback and running around the country at the age of fourteen, to books." My point is baseball is an old sport and a wise antique hunter would pay strong attention to early evidences of this fact, as they would undoubtedly prove fortuitous.

One of the best things about Baseball collectibles is that they don't have to be that old to be valuable. Makes the hobby all the easier. And in a way, it makes it more fun. People covet baseball antiques because the sport is surrounded with good memories: playing catch with dad, hitting a homerun, going to the stadium, that great leathery smell of a baseball glove, and following our favorite players and teams in newspapers like this one every morning.

Here's a few example of recent vintage baseball collectibles sold at public auction recently: Carlton Fisk legendary 1975 World Series, game six, 12th inning homerun ball hit against the Reds-$113,273, Mark McGuire Game worn jersey-$3740, 1960 Casey Stengel signed Baseball-$435, a circa 1960 17" x 11" cardboard broadside featuring the Globetrotters of Baseball-$575, UDA limited edition Michael Jordan Baseball that looks likes and feels like a basketball-$460, Mickey Mantle personally signed baseball bat-$400, 1962 Mickey Mantle baseball card-$325, Walt Disney "The Rookie" Promo baseball jacket-$150, 1951 NY Yankees Yearbook, $173, George Brett Stamped signature baseball glove-$9.25.

One of the things to keep in mind is that baseball collecting is a relatively new craze. Although kids like me collected cards and such in the 1960's, old baseball stuff wasn't big money back then. Today, early vintage baseball souvenirs are one of the hottest antique markets going. Here are a few prices attained in recent years as reported by the Maine Antique Digest: Pair early 20th century cast iron baseball figure andirons-$23,000, 1854 Knickerbocker baseball trophy-$72,050, Circa 1910 Honus Wagner T206 baseball card, one of about 50 surviving-$28,600, Baseball cap worn by Lou Gerhig-$13,203, Babe Ruth outdoor plaza marker, 8½' tall, installed outside Yankee Stadium (baseball) following the Babe's death in 1948-$19,721, Civil War soldier's diary of 1863 with Union army battle life descriptions, including occasional baseball matches-$7,220, The tipped-finger workman-style baseball glove from the 1880's-$4620.

Authentic Baseball star uniforms, signed balls, bats and other such items come up for sale regularly. Rarity has less to do with value than star power. Toward looking out for baseball antiques in your own back yard, seek out the peripherals: Cards, baseball coins, granddad's glove, associated toys books and pamphlets. A Babe Ruth Red Sox uniform wouldn't be a bad find either. Until then, no more Play Dough for Evan!

Alltime Great Baseball Quotes

"Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson." Willie Mays
"I'm not sure what the hell charisma is, but I get the feeling it's Willie Mays." - Ted Kluszewski

"I hate all hitters. I start a game mad and I stay that way until it's over." Don Drysdale

"You can't hit what you can't see." Walter Johnson

"Walter Johnson's fastball looked about the size of a watermelon seed and it hissed at you as it passed." Ty Cobb

"I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball." Pete Rose

"Don Gullett's the only guy who can throw a baseball through a car wash and not get the ball wet." Pete Rose

"You should always go to other people's funerals, otherwise, they won't come to yours." Yogi Berra

"The game's isn't over until it's over." Yogi Berra

"The American boy starts swinging the bat about as soon as he can lift one." Tris Speaker

"I don't want my picture in any cigarettes, but I also don't want you to lose the ten dollars, so I'm enclosing my check for that sum." Honus Wagner

"I would like to take the great DiMaggio fishing," the old man said. "They say his father was a fisherman. Maybe he was as poor as we are and would understand." – From Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea

"Trying to hit Sandy Koufax was like trying to drink coffee with a fork." Willie Stargell

"I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being." Jackie Robinson

"Aw, how could he Jorge Orta lose the ball in the sun, he's from Mexico." Announcer Harry Carry

"Fill in any figure you want for that boy (Mickey Mantle). Whatever the figure, it's a deal." Branch Rickey

"Ain't no man can avoid being born average, but there ain't no man got to be common." Satchel Paige

"When the ball was last seen crossing the roof of the stand in deep right field at 315 feet, we wonder whether new baseballs conversing together in the original package ever remark: "Join Ruth and see the world." From a 1923 New York World newspaper column by Heywood Broun.

"I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can." Babe Ruth

"I had a better year than he did." Babe Ruth (on his salary exceeding President Hoover's.)

"As a ballplayer, I would be delighted to do it again. As an individual, I doubt if I could possibly go through it again." Roger Maris (on breaking Ruth's 60 HR record)

"I think it puts baseball back on the map as a sport. It's America's pastime and just look at everyone coming out to the ballpark. It has been an exciting year." Mark McGuire (On breaking Maris's record)

"Dear Mr. Kuhn, After twelve years in the major leagues, I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes" Curt Flood

"The first glove I ever saw on the hand of a ball player in a game was worn by Charles C. Waite in Boston in 1875." Albert Goodwill Spalding (founder of Spaulding Sporting Goods)

"Baseball was invented in 1839 at Cooperstown, NY by Abner Doubleday-afterward General Doubleday, a hero of the battle of Gettysburg-and the foundation of this invention was an American children's game call one old cat."  1908 report of the Spalding Commission appointed to research the origin of baseball

"They (Frederick the Prince of Whales and his friends) divert themselves at baseball, a play all who have, or have been, schoolboys, are well acquainted with." From a 1748 letter written by Londoner Mary (Lady Hervey) Leppell

"Is it not very wonderful that Catherine who had by nature nothing heroic about her, should prefer cricket, baseball, riding on horseback and running around the country at the age of fourteen, to books." From Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey written in 1798.

"The base paths belonged to me, the runner. The rules gave me the right. I always went into a bag full speed, feet first. I had sharp spikes on my shoes. If the baseman stood where he had no business to be and got hurt, that was his fault." Ty Cobb

"Ty Cobb was still fighting the Civil War, and as far as he was concerned, we were all damn Yankees. But who knows, if he hadn't had that terrible persecution complex, he never would have been about the best ballplayer who ever lived."  Sam Crawford

"I don't want them to forget Ruth, I just want them to remember me!" Henry Aaron

"Hitting is better than sex." Reggie Jackson

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." Lou Gerhig's farewell speech, July 4, 1939 at Yankee Stadium.

"Sporting goods companies pay me not to endorse their products." Bob Eucker

"It's like deja vu all over again." Yogi Berra

Duffer's Clubs Getting Valuable with Each Swing

I was canvassing an outdoor antique show in the mid-80's. Windsors were going through the roof at the time. We all looking for them, hoping to make a hit. Some guy wearing a green beret caught my eye. He was walking around with armful of wood-shaft golf clubs, buying every one he came across.

"Who's that nut?" I asked. For a few bucks, you could buy an armful of woodies in those days. He was paying that per club.

"He told me, he cuts them up," my buddy, Carl said. "Uses the shafts to replace broken Windsor spindles."

"Good idea," I said.

Wood-shaft clubs have value today. Most from $3-$25 each. Rare examples can fetch thousands. Thinking back, I don't dwell on my own short-sightedness, but on the shrewdness of the man in the green cap. He had no intention of cutting those clubs up.

Except for a sprinkling of squarish irons, the ancient game of golf was played with graceful-appearing, hand-fashioned, "long-nose," wooden clubs. They were designed to sweep delicate and costly "feather balls" off sand tees or turf without breaking the golf ball's thin leather skin. Long-nose club heads, attached by a splice in the neck, are slim in profile, long(app. 6"), lead weight backed, and faced with a with a pegged-on strip of horn. The introduction of hard "gutta percha" balls in the 1850's, reversed priorities. Now it was club, not ball, needing protection. Heads and necks became stockier. Many long-nose clubs were stamped on top by maker. Authentic, pre-1890, examples are scarce and can command huge prices today. Modern-type drilling of the head to accept the shaft, "socket-head woods," began to supplant spliced-head woods in the 1890's.

Irons came into wide usage with the introduction of the "gutty" ball. Early examples were hand-forged. They are highly prized. One such club, the "track iron" was made with a tiny round face for hitting balls out of wagon wheel ruts. From about 1880 until 1920, irons were produced in pre-shaped dies and finished by app.150 known "cleekmakers." These firms or individuals stamped the back of the head with a steel die to impress their mark. Collecting "cleekmarks" is a major aspect of club collecting today. Early irons were smooth faced. In the 1890's, dots were punched into the strike area to enhance backspin.

In the late 19th century, competition in the golf industry became strong. Clubs with unusual and inventive features, "patent clubs," came into prominence. Many of these woods, irons, and putters are highly sought after today. The "rake iron," one model was patented in 1905, had open-air slots incorporated in the face. This must have been an advantage in those days, when golfers had to play a ball lying in casual water. Sam Hagen endorsed a concave sand trap wedge in 1890. It was declared illegal a year later. The famous center shafted "Schendectady" putter, patented in 1903, was outlawed in 1908-in part, because it was thought to work too well.

By 1920, most clubs were mass produced by large companies like MacGregor and Wilson. They were made with machine-applied face patterns, chrome plated heads to reduce rusting, and sold, unlike the old days, in graduated, matched sets. Steel shafts replaced wood in the 30's. Many early steel shafts were painted to look like their wood predesessors. Golf clubs are evolving faster than ever today. If you a man with a green cap buying up those useless old "Tommy Armour" persimmon woods and "Silver Scot" irons, and he tells you he's going to turn them into canes, don't believe him.

Golf Balls Put Ace Collectors in the Green

Tiger Woods made forty million dollars a few weeks ago by turning pro and lending his name to Nike and Titleist products. You can well imagine that a sport referring to itself as "the Royal and Ancient Game," one with posh country clubs worldwide, and one where sponsors are prepared to wager forty million bucks on the promise of a gifted 20 year old is also a sport that attracts wealthy collectors of its history.

Golf is indeed, an ancient sport. In the Roman Empire a similar game, pagancia, was played with a feather-stuffed ball and bent sticks. Scottish parliament noted with some concern in March, 1457, that people were neglecting archery for it. In 1491, Scotland's King James IV, was so upset with his subjects wasting time in the pastures he decreed, "In na place of the realme there be usit futeball, golfe or othr sik unprofitabill sportis." The King, of course, continued playing golf as evidenced by golf balls being entered into his accounts by the high treasurer in 1503. Early American mention is made in an advertisement that appeared in the April 21, 1779 edition of Rivington New York's Royal Gazette: "To the Golf Players. The season for this pleasant and healthy exercise now advancing. Gentlemen may be furnished with excellent CLUBS and the veritable Caledonian(Scottish town) BALLS by enqiring at the Printers."

If by chance one of your ancestors responded to that 1779 ad, and one of those old golf balls is still hanging around, count your blessings. Prior to 1848, golf balls were made of three pieces of thin softened leather, usually untanned bull's hide. The two round ends and middle strip were sewn together tight with wax linen thread leaving only a small hole that served two purposes. The first was to hide the stitching seams by turning the ball outside in(balls with exposed stitches like a baseball are probably not golf balls), the second was stuffing. Feathers, the recipe called for as many as a tall hat would hold, were stuffed soggy through the hole into the dampened leather shell. The drying of the expanding wet feathers combined with the contracting leather resulted in a ball so compressed it could be driven 200 yards. Most authentic balls found today will still be hard. "Feather" balls were normally painted white, some where painted red for playing in snow. Making these first class balls was both and art and a science. A skilled worker could only produce three or four a day. Feather balls made after 1820 were often marked with the stamp of the ballmaker and numbered by hand with their weight in drams. Although hundreds of thousands of feather balls were made, they are scarce today. A single ball can be worth $1,000 to $12,000 and more depending upon condition and markings.

In 1848 the "guttie", a ball of solid gutta percha, hard rubber made from the sap of a percha tree, supplanted feather balls. They were a tenth the price and more durable, especially in wet weather. The first of these balls were smooth and twisted in flight. Golfers soon discovered the aerodynamics that caused nicked balls to fly truer and they began marking and scratching their smooth surface golf balls. These earlier gutties can be as valuable as feather balls. By 1870, all balls were manufactured with dimples or recessed markings that are collected for their variances today. In 1898 a rubber core ball similar to today's balls supplanted the guttie.

Balls like all golfing antiques come in thousands of varieties. Every time something new is invented, something old becomes antique.

Fishing Antiques

Every thing else being equal, head toward those church sales, country auctions, estate, and tag sales that advertise "FISHING BOAT FOR SALE."  When you arrive early, forget the old skiff - they seldom have antique value.  Look instead for everything else having to do with fishing.  Quite often, people selling the "old boat" are also looking to rid themselves of the accompanying rods, reels, nets, and tackle boxes stuffed with tangled spinning lures and plugs, tied flies, an old fishing license, knives, line, hooks, and other fishy smelling things.  Some of these "cast-away" objects can reel-in surprising prices.  For instance, a single fishing lure-a 6" long "Haskell" minnow, patented in 1859, recently sold at auction for $14,850!

Like most old lures, an early Haskell Minnow wouldn't strike you as anything important.  It looks like a little dead fish with a barbed double hook at the end.  Originally, the lure was silver-plated.  But that probably wouldn't strike you as odd.  Only about thirty or so have been identified to date.  Who would know?   If you found a Haskell Minnow in your basement, or one of the scarce few other types that bring huge prices, you'd probably go fishing with it and hook it on a submerged log.  So wouldn't most antique dealers.  The point is, don't sell or discard Grampa's old fishing stuff!  This is one time when you don't want to brag about the one that got away.

The valuation of old lures is dependent upon: condition, age, attribution to a recognized collectible maker, interest and appeal, the track record price of the lure type, and basically, how much those fellows who covet old lures are willing to pay for yours at the time.  Most lures you'll encounter will be worth but a few dollars.  One or two, if you're lucky, will be worth couple hundred.  Casting lures, most early ones are made out of wood, metal, string, or rubber-not modern plastic, are the most sought after.  Look for glass or tack eyes and hooks that are fastened inside tin cups set into a small hole drilled into the lure.  A small weight tied to the lure is a good sign.  Flies are collected by their tier.  An original paper backing or envelope will usually be marked.  Carrie Stevens (1882-1972) is a master tier whose files are recognizable by a tiny red band in their heads.  There are a thousand other things to study in discerning the age and quality of lures but you'd forget them just like I do.  Here's my suggestions for the novice.

1.  Keep in mind that 60 years is old for a lure.

2.  Look for "associated" clues as to how long they've been around and buy lures with age.  If there is a boat for sale; how old is the boat?  Who fished with the lures?  Dad or Great Grand Dad?  I bought a tackle box full of lures last year based on a 1952 fishing license that was enclosed within.

3.  Be cheap.  Pay no more for lures than what seems to be a good buy if you're just purchasing them to catch fish.  If you don't fish, pay less.  That way you won't get hooked.

4.  Look for lures that are beautifully crafted and have interesting, mechanical, fish-catching design.  An original lure box is a big plus. 

5.  Once you've made what you think is a great catch.  Relax, and do your homework.  Hope you land a big one!