GREAT month so far, Keep em coming:)

Greg:
Beautiful and elegant Wagner piece.... love the depiction of early equipment.

Bob:
Amazing photos... The Clemente is just epic, and the Bain Red Sox speaks for itself. Great stuff!


Here's a cool early Bagatelle Game I picked up, circa 1888. From the Cooper collection, it's believed to be the first ever Baseball-themed Pinball Game...

Nice Bob! You got your ruth red sox photo:) That Clemente is the BOMB.

Game
 

Mark,
That is an amazing pinball game Mark, I love the display pieces and that is about as good as it gets! If you ever want to move that, please let me know

Thanks Bob, and yes... a nearly impossible game, let alone in this condition. It even retains 3 of the original wood balls.

We'll see what the future holds... If I somehow miraculously win "that other thing we spoke about", I will be in Emergency Selling Mode. I wouldn't hold my breath on that happening, but you never know ;)

The God of Batting
 

You are killing me with that Clemente image!

Here is the most recent addition to my increasingly eclectic collection. Although I dabble in Japanese baseball memorabilia I didn’t have an original photo from the Nippon Professional Baseball League. I saw this 1947 photo on eBay and fell in love with the photo’s composition without having any idea who the subject of the photo was. I googled his name (Tetsuharu Kawakami) and found that he was known as The God of Batting in Japan and is a member of their Hall of Fame. I contacted Robert Klevens of www.prestigecollectibles.com . He had this early 1950s Autographed Small shikishi by Tetsuharu Kawakami. Apparently autographed shikishis from this period are quite scarce. In addition to his name at left, Kawakami wrote "Tokyo Giants Team" in the center in Japanese. At right, he wrote the kanji for "Endeavor" signed with a traditional brush pen. If you read the link below by Robert Whiting you will learn how appropriate the use of the “Endeavor” kanji was by Kawakami. I hope to frame the photo and shikishi board together. By the way if you haven’t read Whiting’s book You Gotta Have Wa do so it is a great read.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2.../#.Up1Wu8u9KSM

That is really cool... I always thought collecting Japanese and Cuban past greats would be fun but I just can't collect everything. Really nice Mike.

Thanks Ben, that is great compliment coming from you. I only wish I had your collecting focus, knowledge, and resources.:D

Mark,
Beautiful early game! Congrats on this pickup. :)

Awesome Clemente, Bob!

Mike,

BEAUTIFUL photo of Kawakami. Pretty perfectly composed, nice light, cool content - you did quite well.

Bravo!

Graig

Congrats
 

Very nice photo, Mike, and I for one really appreciate your eclectic tastes. Anything you might be lacking in resources you seem to make up for in diligence and resourcefulness. Every time you snag one of these nice photos and say "I found it on eBay" I'm thinking to myself "Why didn't I see that? Is there some back room of eBay filled with such wonderment that I have somehow overlooked?" Anyway, another great find (especially with the shikishi to go with it), and I look forward to seeing what you unearth next :cool:

If I had unlimited resources it would be scary. I pick my battles now and got into this photo thing earlier than most. Luckily I was able to network, Educate myself and zero in on what I wanted to accomplish years ago. I was exactly where you were at 5 to 7 years ago. I, by no means, have crazy resources..just able to move things around and focus. You are on your way to building a word class collection with seemingly modest means, a great eye and many man hours. You certainly remind me of the "good old days". Great photos can still had but graduating to differt levels is inevitable my friend. :) don't stop while you're ahead says me! Haha!

An old time guy went to the game, pasted his tickets inside, marked who played, scored on the roster page, and even cut out articles from paper and pasted them in some spots, for the upcoming game.

Just love this kinda cool stuff. WHA All star program from My homestate of Hartford. :)

Picked this up at a local auction this morning. Jim Leyritz G/U bat. Same bat sold at a Heritage Auction in 2006.

Attachment 124388

1910 Oversized Cubbie:D

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps3db21f40.jpg

Mark, great acquisition on the Wachter's Parlor Base Ball. Just for accuracy's sake, it's more reliably ascribed to 1890-91,
and possibly predated by Nash Manufacturing's circa 1889 Base-Ball And Bagatelle. Not to take a single thing away from it --
it's a beauty, probably in the best condition of any of the few surviving examples of Wachter's.

Well, Tanks for Nuttin, Butch :mad: (anybody remember that irritating girlfriend in Caddyshack?)

I don't want it anymore. I was under the impression this was the oldest one. In his book, Dr. Cooper has Wachter's listed as being from 1888 and the far less attractive Nash Game from 1889. Are you saying Cooper is mistaken about this??? Can we just call it a tie between Wachter and Nash for oldest?

Seriously, I care lots more about its displayability and rarity than the exact date of manufacture. But appreciate the additional info. Interesting stuff :)

Jeez, sorry, Mark! We shoulda kept our mouths shut (or our fingers off the keyboard) -- it's a great piece no matter what.

Mark Cooper will readily admit there are errors in his 1994 volume -- it was a pioneering work with almost no prior sources
or available documentation on which to rely, so there was was a lot of guesstimation involved in putting a date to many pieces.
Over time, much has been corrected and many blanks filled in by collectors and members at our Baseball Games forum,
and a great deal of that new information is thanks to the ferocious research of Hall of Fame Senior Curator Tom Shieber,
who did an incredible amount of digging to get the details right for the Hall's 2008 exhibition of Dr Cooper's collection.
The patent for Wachter's was granted in March 1891, and the earliest advertisements so far found for it appear in October 1890.
The patent for the Nash Base-Ball And Bagatelle was granted in September 1889, but we haven't yet run across
any advertising for it.

That said, there's often a substantial gap between the granting of a patent and the actual production of a game -- sometimes
a couple of years, in a few instances decades. Advertisements are often a more reliable indicator than patent or copyright dates
of when a game was actually on the market. Without more documentation on the Nash game, there's no overwhelming reason
to think Wachter's didn't hit the market first and that you do in fact have a scarce example of the oldest baseball-themed
pinball/bagatelle game made.

Wow- that's some great history. Thanks for all of the background info! I am truly amazed and impressed that you are able to document it in such meticulous detail... great stuff.

Of course I was just kidding about being disappointed. It's fascinating to study and collect these relics from Baseball's infancy, and you guys are providing a great service to our community :)

Mike,
Incredible Cubs pennant

Hi again, Mark, thanks very much for the kind words! We really were concerned we'd thrown a wet blanket over your Wachter's
(creepy as that might sound) when we'd only wanted to get some more precise info out there for ya.

We'll add, in fact, for your edification, that Wachter was Henry Wachter, who designed and patented the game,
which was produced by the Columbus Engraving Co [Columbus, Ohio] under the "Columbus Parlor Base Ball Co" rubric
(all that info solely due to the amazing research of Tom Shieber).

By the way, Yahoo has recently all but crippled our forum, but we're transcribing the entirety of its nine-plus years
of research and discussion to a new host at a new location, hopefully ready and open for business by Christmas.
Our main site (linked in our sig) remains in place (but sorely in need of updating).

Love the site!

1895 baseball puzzle
 

Just got this delivered today. Bought it off Ebay. This is my second one I have bought. From the Thompson Novelty company in 1895 a baseball dexterity game called "The baseball puzzle and teacher".

Hey Butch what do you think of this one?

Got this today
 

1903 Pirates Supplement with a VERY young Honus Wagner :D

bravo!

Eight 2013 Lance Berkman game used bats:

Pic 2

Always forget one...

Pudge Rodriguez game used Rangers bat

Pic two

Ian Kinsler and David Murphy game worn helmets. NFS btw

Pic #2

Shale, we're just really annoyed that you now own both of the only two examples of that game we've ever seen... ;)

J/K, bud, that's a great pick-up! Don't forget to show it off again when our new forum opens up in a couple of weeks.

Apropos of nothing, but hey, that's our 200th post here, and it took us only four and a half years! Look out Adrian!

Butch- Is there a site that covers the history of football games?

Actually Butch, I believe Heritage had one last month that sold if I remember close to $400.00. I paid $75.00 for this one.

Mike, thanks for the kind words about our site! We haven't run across anything similar dealing exclusively or primarily with tabletop football games,
but we do collect a little information on them ourselves (as well as a few actual games), so if you have questions, try us.

Shale, allrighty then, "two of the three we've heard of." Still a rare item, so again, congrats! We've been so busy the past few weeks
rebuilding the forum (and with holiday-season distractions) that we've been unable to do any auction tracking lately, so we missed
the Heritage offering.

My first Stanfor Pottery piece
 

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps9bd649f1.jpg
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps4f3e5c70.jpg

Stanford Pottery
 

You started off with a real nice one, Mike. The Stanford Tigers is a beautiful figural. Congrats.

Awesome Mike....

Cream of the crop figural!!!

This new piece is now the cornerstone of my Tigers collection. It is about 6" tall and is the only example of this piece I have encountered.

A HUGE thank you to Mark S. (Perezfan) for making this one available. I don't know, but I think it may have been produced by Neff because a Tigers mug I own has an absolutely identical snarling Tiger head.

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps1913dea5.jpg

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps1c2b3392.jpg

TY
 

:)

This one has been on my wish list for quite some time and will display nicely with the Pirates/Tigers panaromic supplement that I picked up last year. Thanks Greg!

These two additions came via my good friend Brock!!!

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps15f84c86.jpg

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...psf8196b2d.jpg

Greg - that's beautiful, congrats.

Doug

Just got these- sorry the iPhone puts it sideways
Matt

Real nice Matt! Surely you don't need 2 of the same and want to sell me one! ;)

You are having a heckuva December! Lots of nice pickups.

Matt,
Send the iPhone photo to your computer, open it using Paint. Paint gives you and everyone else the opportunity to rotate the photo image. Save it and then send it from your computer. Give it a try. Fewer broken necks from straining to look at the image sideways...

BTW, I do this all the time because I have an iPhone

Great trophies, BTW!

At least on my iphone it is pretty easy to rotate photos. For mine, you can open the photo by clicking on it in your camera roll, click on edit in the upper right corner, then click the turning arrow in the lower left corner to rotate the image.