Anyone heard of Mel Bailey?

[39special]

I just bought a huge lot of 8x10's and a bunch have Photo by Mel Bailey Riverside Ca.
stamped on the back.They are all black and white,with some action shots,and a few from an allstar game.Most are from the '80's and '90's,a few older.I wanted to find out some info on
Mel.Couldn't find anything on google.
Any info would be great.

[oaks1912]

Mel Bailey is a long time collector going back into the 1950's. During the 60's he was stationed in Japan and is one of the guys responsible for bringing large amounts of Japanese baseball cards into the United States market. He was involved in the production of the Kabaya Leaf set in 1967. Mel was also a photographer and took literally tens of thousands of baseball player images over the decades. His photography peaked during the 1980's. The past few years he has been dealing with health issues, unfortunately.

[39special]

Mel Bailey is a long time collector going back into the 1950's. During the 60's he was stationed in Japan and is one of the guys responsible for bringing large amounts of Japanese baseball cards into the United States market. He was involved in the production of the Kabaya Leaf set in 1967. Mel was also a photographer and took literally tens of thousands of baseball player images over the decades. His photography peaked during the 1980's. The past few years he has been dealing with health issues, unfortunately.

Thanks Mark!

[Hot Springs Bathers]

Mel also produced and sold a Japanese Baseball Yearbook one year, maybe for the 1967 season????

[Wite3]

Not that I love resurrecting old threads...but sometimes I am glad Net54 archives everything. I just purchased a small collection that included hundreds of autographs. One envelope of wallet sized black and white pictures from the 1960s just had "Mel Bailey's autographs" on the outside. Inside were approximately 50 photos from the early 60s. About half are autographed by the player and all contain a pencil notation on the back of who they are. The images are awesome. Looks like Spring training photos but it also includes some neat images of players from Hawaii team and a few other minor league teams as well (one with what looks like a DW on the hat, and one with a block letter R as well).

I am thankful, as usual, for Mark and this thread letting me know who Mr. Bailey was on my first google search.

[rkaluzok]

Why not resurrect an old thread.

Mel Bailey had a large collection of baseball guides. He was a major contributor to an article "A Baseball Guide History" by John Spaulding which appeared in the Sports Collectors Digest of July 1, 1988, page 148.

Since I have a large collection of baseball guides, I found the historical article very interesting.

[Hot Springs Bathers]

Any chance of posting that SCD article? I am a huge guide collector.

[4reals]

Not sure if anyone will see this but I live 15 minutes from this gentleman lived and his family is holding an estate sale this weekend. There are THOUSANDS of photos for sale. More than I could ever take home including a huge stack of 8x10 B&Ws. If anyone is interested in buying let me know and I can play middle man.

[jakebeckleyoldeagleeye]

I bought hundreds of NHL and WHA postcard sized photos and 8 by 10 photos from Mr. Bailey in the 70's. When I sent them out to get signed some players would ask me where I bought them as they wanted some. Same with old retired baseball players I was trying TTM were asking me about photos I bought from George Brace.

[mrreality68]

very interesting life and history on the man
Do we have examples of those photos to share?