An interesting Cubs/old time baseball item

[whitehse]

I have posted a number of times that I worked for the Chicago Cubs for a number of years back in the 80's which was before the memorabilia boom in this hobby. A number of times they would clean out a room and throw out some items only to see me dumpster diving to pull items I thought were cool back out. This was one of those items.

Robert Lewis was the Cub's Traveling Secretary back in the 20's and 30's and probably experienced some incredible baseball in his lifetime. He apparently was well thought of as the Old Timer's Baseball Association of Chicago decided to honor him at their 25th annual winter banquet back in 1943. Presented here is the program I dug out of the garbage and amazingly enough it looks like it was printed yesterday (with some toning in the paper). I believe this to be Lewis' own personal copy as it was found with a good deal of his personal papers. I thought I would post the whole program as there are some names from baseball's very distant past that are represented within these pages. This program is measure a bit larger than a paperback book (the size reminds me of the Sunday "programs" one would get from an usher as they entered Church) and is in incredible shape.

I hope you enjoy looking at this program. I am looking at donating this to the new Chicago Baseball Museum if they want it.

[bmarlowe1]

The Old Timers Baseball Association of Chicago ceased operation in September of 2009 after a long run. I went to a number of their banquets though I missed that last one.

[steve B]

That's some great stuff you saved. They should have just let you take it all or go through it before they sent it to the dumpster.

Steve B

[whitehse]

LOL I agree Steve.

If I know now what I knew then I would have just taken everything home with me. I remember seeing old glass negatives from the Bears, correspondence to Robert Lewis from various baseball executives, heck we even found a box of fan mail to Leo Durocher from when he was the Cubs manager during the 60's. Much of this stuff got dumped and will never see the light of day again.

I do have to say that some stuff they did not throw out were player contracts. While looking for something one day I went into the janitors closet and noticed a number of filing cabinets. I opened a drawer and couldnt believe that I was looking at player contracts. One of the other guys I knew who was into baseball history as much as I was spent a Saturday in the off season just looking at these contracts. As far as we could tell there were contracts going all the way back to the 20's in these cabinets. I held Ernie Banks' 1st contract in my hands. I looked at Kiki Cuylers contracts and saw Roger Hornsby's last contract. I was totally in awe of what we were looking at and vowed if they ever tossed those out, I would be all over them. Thankfully, they never did toss them out and realized their value and have now taken steps to store them in a way that will not ruin them

I had a few people suggest to me that I should have taken a few as they would have never known. I mean, the Banks' rookie contract could have probably bought me a new car or more but honestly, taking any of these never entered my mind. I was just in so much awe of what I was holding that to have that memory was worth it to me.

[steve B]

Someday I'll have to get out the Cubs coffee cup I have so I can post pics. It's restauraunt china which makes me think it's from wrigley. I can't really see it as a souvenir, and I can't think of a reason a diner or place like that would use the cubs logo.

Did they have a team coffee area or anything like that when you were there?

I picked up a few plates from Fenways 406 club from one of the staff. When they remodeled and renamed it he asked if he could have some of the plates. They said to take as many as he wanted since they'd just get thrown out.

And there was at least one person saving Red Sox stuff before the new owners came in. I only bought one thing, but they had a bunch of internal paperwork. The one I picked was the sheet Yaz signed when he was issued his uniforms one year. Stuff was getting collectable then, and I think he took whatever was being tossed. Same thing, need a closet? throw out whatever's in there and fill it up again.

Steve B

[slidekellyslide]

Hobbyists everywhere owe a debt of gratitude to dumpster divers and pack rats. I would guess that those of us who collect paper have at least something in our collection that was rescued from the dumpster.