That bat rack is awesome!

Nice pickups Michael and nice bat rack.

Thanks guys! Ill post pictures when it's cleaned and has bats on it.

Great look to that bat rack Ron. Best way to tell if it was originally built to be a bat rack is that the pegs on the left side should be higher than those on the right, since the left side of the bat is thinner.

Greg

Thanks Greg. Yeah I'm going to have to take a closer look at it and see.

Why am I not seeing any pegs? :confused:

Nolan Ryan game used Houston Astros hat circa 1985
 

Not prewar, but this hat is a terrific addition to my Nolan Ryan game used collection. The thing that makes this hat special is the use. Not many of Nolan's hats enter the hobby with the use characteristics that this one displays.
This one is pretty salty. :eek: It must have originated from a few days in the season with lots of humidity...

This hat originated from one of the other advanced Ryan collectors in the hobby; a close friend of over 20 years. :)

Gehrig
 

A big thank you to Al. Aka batsballsbases for making a nerd's fantasy come true for a day. He was gracious enough to part with this beaut. It is in very high end condition. Most importantly, I am happy to add another straight shooter to my memorabilia friend base. Thanks Al!

Al is always a great person to deal with :). Highest quality Pinbacks and memorabilia at very fair prices. That's a beautiful Gehrig! I love the sharp focus on his cap and face, and the softer focus on the body...

And congrats Scott.... Since nobody else commented on the Ryan Hat, I will...

What an epic piece of game-worn memorabilia from the No-Hit King! I love that classic Astros style, and the game-use is phenomenal. Most Ryan "gamers" look virtually new... A wonderful addition to your collection!

That said... If an Angels example ever surfaces, I might give you a run for the money :rolleyes:

Scott, That Ryan hat is awesome. The monthly additions to your collection never cease to impress. Ben, that Gehrig is a piece of art.

Thanks Mark & Mike. This is a cool hat & it will be in hand in about a week as it is en route from Canada. I have seen the hat up close and it is awesome.

Mark, I own an Angels Ryan cap with similar use, so the next one up is yours. ;)

Benny, that Gehrig photo is awesome! Congrats!

Ben,
My pleasure. The photo gave me many years of pleasure I hope it will do the same for you! Ben is a true class act to deal with and Im glad the photo is in the hands of a true collector.
Mark,
Always the best, has one of the finest collections bar none! Thanks for the kind words.

American Eagle Tobacco
 

Some of these items I’ve had for many years, but they tell a better story together. I’ve been collecting American Eagle Tobacco items for over a decade as the President, M. S. Smith, was a big supporter of the home town Detroit Wolverines. I really wish American Eagle Tobacco would have issued baseball cards to go with the many other subject matters they tackled in print and photo. Their best known baseball subject is the trade card that the Post Office recently decided to mimic with their stamp celebrating the 100 year anniversary of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (1908-2008).


I have many different varieties of their trade cards including the one here which was distributed in Escanaba, MI; a town very close to where I grew up.


Now for the new items, a pair of 1888 Calendar months. I owe a thank you to David Rosenburg for the April Calendar which has advertising on back for a NY based tobacco store (in Goodwin & Company’s back yard). The June calendar has a more interesting back; the home schedule for the World Champion Detroit Wolverines. As weak as it may be, this could be the closest I will get to finding a direct public connection between the American Eagle Tobacco Company and the Detroit Wolverines.


I’d very much be interested in any other American Eagle Tobacco calendars that might be out there that I might be able to study and/or make a bid to own.

I went to the Mroczek Brothers auction in Renton today. http://mbaauction.com/auctions.html The Babe Ruth autographed 8X10 was purchased by a bidder at the auction for $7750 +16% premium + 10% sales tax = $9889. That seemed like a pretty high price to me but I don't collect autographs. Due to a bored 12 year old daughter ("Is it almost over dad"?) I was forced to leave half way through the catalog.:rolleyes: There were still beautiful Cobbs and a Cy Young left to be auctioned off. There were a couple of unsigned photos in the auction. I was hoping that all of the pretty autographs would be a distraction and thus allow me to get a good deal on this Type I photo of Dizzy and Daffy Dean at the 1934 World Series. That did not happen. Nonetheless, I am pleased to add what I consider to be a very pretty photo to my collection.

Was hoping the auction would fly under everyone's radar but no dice. Followed it live on the internet. Prices were phenomenal (if you were the AH). Put in around five bids but was not competitive. Aside from the 19% BP I had to factor in 12% Goods & Service Tax plus our anemic Canadian dollar. Would have loved the signed M101-2 Cobb which sold for a whopping US$7750 but I'd be out Can$12.2K. No can do.

Vandy 1940 at Wrigley Field snapshot
 

Many thanks to net54's Gary Scamehorn for allowing me this great circa 1940 snapshot of Johnny Vander Meer at Wrigley Field!

Picked up these this weekend. The bat is a Kork grip, there's part of decal on there but I can't make it out. Does anybody know what the decal might be or look like? I also picked up these newspaper printing plates of the Yankees winning the WS in 1996. Nothing special there but thought they would display nice in my mancave. Thanks!

With the close of Heritage’s Auction, May has been a pretty good month with respect to picking up some styles for my exemplar jersey reference library.

1. c1947 Philadelphia Phillies Home Jersey: Classic short lived post-war era style by Wilson. A unique facet of construction on this jersey includes the fact that the sleeves are actually part of the body construction (not entirely unlike Raglan sleeves), lacking a joining seam across the chest and shoulder area. In addition, the underarm is without a gusset, but only features four venting holes. Lastly, the fabric panels are not a traditional front and back, but rather a left and right since the garment is joined in the rear center of the jersey. This same manner of construction can be found in Wilson jerseys provided to the Cleveland Indians in 1947 and 1948 as well.

2. 1950 Philadelphia A’s Home Jersey: Extremely rare and beautiful style. What I also love about this is it is an example of a jersey that features tagging for the manufacturer (MacGregor-Goldsmith) as well as the local distributor (Mitchell & Ness). The body of the garment features side panels and collar/sleeve areas made of typical wool blend flannel of the period, but the interior of body is a cotton/nylon durene with a much more open weave that the typical flannel products of the period. Back in 1936 Goldsmith of Cincinnati introduced a rather short lived open weave “Palm Beach” fabric. This particular “palm beach style” offering was produced by MacGregor-Goldsmith in limited numbers (not complete team orders) for teams from c1948-1950 and the teams included the Brooklyn Dodgers and Cleveland Indians, in addition to this Philadelphia A’s jersey.

3. 1954 Philadelphia A’s Road Jersey: Pretty tough one year style and the first time the team name would appear on the jerseys for the franchise. This is also the last year the A’s played in Philadelphia. Like the 1950 A’s home jersey, this features duel tagging as well for the manufacturer (MacGregor) as well as the local distributor (Pearson).

5. 1961 Los Angeles Angels Road Uniform (jersey & pants): First year team and style, and pretty tough to find from 1961.

4. 1960 Chicago White Sox Road Jersey: Nice style with sleeve “TV numbers”. Also features an example of a carry-over in manufacturers tagging by Wilson.

Dave Grob
DaveGrob1@aol.com

1970s scrapbook full of candid Locker Room Photos
 

There are more than 50 pages of mostly bare-chested locker room photographs from the 70s & 80s. There are pictures of many athletes from different sports (mostly Basketball) including; Ali, Big O, Dr. J., Hondo, Wilt, Willie Mays and many many more.

The picture of Ali looks like P. Pierce - "The Truth"

^^^^ not a tattoo in sight! :D

Could anybody tell me if the K40 bat is a store model or pro model? The bat measures 33 inches and weighs 35.2 oz. Which players had decal models? Thanks for any info.

Wheat and Frisch Wire Photo
 

Picked up this wire photo of Zach Wheat and Frankie Frisch.

Great photo!

1914 Spalding Baseball Catalog
 

Kenny you've got an eagle eye for Zach Wheat for sure! :) Nice pic.

I just got this 1914 Spalding Baseball Catalog that still has original shipping sleeve intact. Hard to believe over the past 100 years someone hasn't ripped it off.

Really cool find Michael!
I doubt anyone will see another.

http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...pszgq8gthh.jpg

http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...psnv29yihq.jpg

1916 World Series program

http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/y...psl9lpqbgt.jpg

1913 Fenway ticket for Eddie Cicotte complete game victory.

http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/y...psoy4bx5gw.jpg

As with most of my purchases, both will be available shortly.

Tom C

Nice pick-ups, Tom!! Man, Joseph Lannin had an amazing mustache.

Lou Gehrig 125 store model. In almost perfect shape, strong stampings. Measures 36 inches long and not cracked

Picked up my holy grail, game used Zach Wheat bat.

Got rid of one to get another...
 

Sold my Ruth ball after I got nervous about displaying and thinking the ball was starting to change color (which it probably wasn't was just paranoid). Anyway I found something else instead that went more in line with my collection. Here is my newest Ruth auto.

That's really cool. I remember seeing Bailey hit his first home run - a low liner over the left field fence. He did it early in the 1984 season and he had been hitting well for the first week or two. As an Astros fan we were crossing our fingers that we finally had a catcher who could hit but it all went to hell soon after, as usual.

Sorry to hear that in addition to sucking as a hitter and catcher, he also appears to be a jerk.

Flea market finds from this morning. 1928 Philadelphia A's team supplement and a Vic Wertz professional model bat.

Glad it ended up in your collection. Enjoy it!

Thanks Joey!

Police Gazette centerfold from October 4, 1919 with members of both WS teams.

Nolan Ryan 2nd no-hitter game used baseball
 

May continues to be a great month for world class pickups.
Here is my latest, a game used baseball from Nolan Ryan's 2nd career no-hitter on 7/15/73 at DET.

Ryan fanned 17 in this game and, according to Nolan himself, this was his best pitched game in the big leagues.
Tigers Norm Cash pranked the futility of trying to hit off of Nolan by arriving to the plate with a table leg instead of a bat with two outs in the bottom of the 9th. Home plate umpire Ron Luciano had him get rid of the table leg and replace it with a real bat, but not before it got a laugh out of everyone that was in on the gag. It didn't matter because Cash immediately grounded out to end the game. The Detroit Free Press interviewed several of the hometown Tigers after the game. Tigers skipper Billy Martin stated that "Ryan had everything" that night. Nolan's 2nd no-hitter in as many months in 1973 ranks right up there as arguably one of the most dominating game's ever pitched.

This ball came from the private collection of one of the most advanced Ryan collectors, and close personal friend, and hasn't re-entered the hobby in perhaps 15+ years. It originated directly from one of the camera men that worked Ryan's 2nd no-hitter game and saved a ball that was fouled off a Ryan pitch that ended up in the camera well. He was fortunate enough to get Nolan to sign the ball after the game... :cool:

Here are a few other items that I have in my collection related to Nolan's 2nd no-hitter game. The game used catchers mitt was used by Nolan's Angels battery mate Art Kusnyer in the early innings of this game. Kusnyer switched catchers mitts after the third inning when he developed a fairly substantial tear in the mitt's pocket from Ryan's supercharged heater that day.

Another great pickup Scott! How many game used Ryan balls do you have?

Steve,
Thanks for asking.
I suppose that I have perhaps 16 different game balls all related to Ryan career milestones.
Currently I have game balls to:
6 of Ryan's 7 career no-hitters, balls to 2 of his 4 different 19K games, his 300th win, 4000th strikeout, 5,000th strikeout, his last win #324, a game ball from the infamous Ryan/Ventura fight game in 1993 and a game ball from the first time that Nolan and Steve Carlton ever faced off- 7/1/69. The significance of this game was that it was the first meeting of the eventual top right handed strikeout pitcher and lefty of their era. For the record, Lefty won their first hookup...

"First we'll use Spahn
then we'll use Sain
Then an off day
followed by rain
Back will come Spahn
followed by Sain
And followed
we hope
by two days of rain."

Gerald V. Hern

Pick up a JG Taylor Spink award given to Earl Weaver in 1969 by St Louis BBWAA for being the St Louis Baseball Man of The Year

Attachment 192602

show the whole thing! and closer on helmet!

...and send me the helmet !!