April 2011 Pick Up Thread
 

Thought I'd get a jump on April 1st. Foolish?

Picked up a two paper items referencing base ball in Toronto. One is an envelope addressed to "Manager Toronto Base Ball Club, International League" post stamped Aug, 1889. I assume that this would be intended for the Toronto Canucks, the team that pre-dated the Maple Leafs.

Second item, also from 1889, is a post card announcing the "Annual Dinner of the Financial and Legal Base Ball Club" of Toronto. At first I thought these were a pair but the postcard is also stamped and dated for Jan of 1889. Don't know anything about this team.

Nice early Toronto items.... And best of all, cheap! (listed in the stamp section of EBay)

http://i518.photobucket.com/albums/u...e/39a68d26.jpg

It's been forever since I've added a new Reds Pennant to the collection. Here is an elegant 1930s version from Mears, that I was happy to pick up...

1859 Harper's Weekly Hoboken "Elysian Fields" Cricket/Baseball woodcut. It's not in the best of shape, but I'm still pretty excited.

Picked up two photos of Les Bell...manager of the Lincoln A's in 1952.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...l/lesbell1.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...l/lesbell2.jpg

Being as it is only the first day of April, I guess people pick up things before this thread starts and just post whenever. That how it works?


http://www.amazon.com/b?%5Fencoding=...&creative=9325

Pretty serious offense.
 

Wow. The pick-up regulators are out today! I guess it is a major crime to post an item in a thread that you got a day before, huh? It seems to be something not worth complaining/commenting about.....oh, here I go wasting more time and space.

I'm sorry, I know I should have submitted this back in the November thread, but I wanted to make sure it got fully authenticated by multiple sources before I made a fool of myself on the board. First off, this is not something I would have normally done, but because everyone makes so much fun of CC, I decided to go over there and pick a few "really bad" examples to discuss. While I was over there, I saw a "very nice" Ruth/Gehrig ball that was too good to be true (and of course, it had a bid of $250 with a few days to go). Knowing it couldn't be good, but wanting to play a prank on my buddy, I bid $400 and won it. When it arrived, I started looking at it and felt that if it was a fake, it was one of the best that I had seen. With PSA being just up the road, I took a full series of pictures of it and drove it up to them myself. The next thing I'm going to tell you just about floored me...it came back as authentic. Now, I know there has been some debate about some of the 3rd party authenticators, and just to play safe, and armed with PSA's authentication, I had my insurance company write it in to my policy and then I submitted it to JSA...and yes, it came back as authentic as well. By now I had now doubts, but I wanted to check with one other person...a person on this board who is VERY respected. I sent him as many pictures as possible...all angles and close ups. He told me that he would have to see the ball in person, but based on the pictures and the info provided that it indeed looked good to him.
My poor buddy doesn't even know what he might have got by mistake.
I'm not sure what to do next. I would love to keep this in my collection but I think I would get too much at auction. I think I'll have to sleep on this awhile

I'm guessing since Big Dave just registered a few days ago that he's just asking how the pickup thread works.

BTW Chris, nice pickup on that Toronto baseball ticket/envelope...I once found a Nebraska Indians envelope with a nice cache in the stamp section...there was no mention of baseball at all as the owner didn't know what the envelope represented.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...dianscover.jpg

Wow Mike! Can we see pics of the Ruth/Gehrig ball?

Mike, that's quite a find! Post a picture if you can!

I'm feeling really stupid right now because I've got a feeling that I've been had here.... :D April Fools right?

Sorry, but yes this was an April Fools joke!! Couldn't help it...have had a real bad month of March with work and really needed to have a little fun. What I wanted to do was to follow up with pictures of a really BAD looking ball with LOO Gerrag and Babe ROOTH on it. Happy April Fools Day to everyone.

Oh. Duh. :o

Good one!

Damn Mike!
You had me too.
I was about to message you about you holding out on me.
Good one.:D

Reel 'em in Mike!!
 

Mike,
I laughed when I read your post knowing that it was April Fools Day.
Reel 'em in, buddy! Happy Friday :D

Just got this in the mail from Pleasanton, Ks.

April 2011
 

Delete

I mainly collect Baseballs...strictly...but I recently got into the advertisements for such baseballs. Just got these...

Wow, Clint...that's a sweet cabinet. Do you know the year?

Brandon, are you sure that ad with the three old baseballs is real? I've seen way too many fakes of that advertisement...in fact I'm not sure I've ever seen one that is real.

I'm pretty excited about my Walter Johnson auto hand written letter with his own letterhead. I've never seen a letter of his with his letterhead on it.

Pete,
Great looking Walter Johnson piece! Could we see a closeup shot of the letter & when was it written?
Thanks!

Pete,
Very nice. Did you have those framed or is that the way you got it?
JV

It's the way I got it. Once I figure out how to crop a pic of it I'll post it on here. It's unique being that it's from his own letterhead and he's talking about watching some baseball games in it. I'm actually selling it if anyone wants it.

!

Here's the letter.

March pickup thread:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...588#post879588

BST post two hours later:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...615#post879615

Not exactly in the best form, sycks22.

Thanks Dan. I'm guessing the late 1890's to early 1900's.

Roberto Clemente Signed Program
 

I just picked these up today. 2 Programs and 1 scorecard. Not sure why one is orange and the other is red. Both are in incredible condition!! They've been stored in a file cabinet for quite some time. Color is just as bright as when new!! Original owner's mother worked at the Denver Bears(Tiger affiliate)stadium in 1961. Coming from a broken home with little positive male influence she brought him to the stadium one day because she wanted to show him something. That "something" was getting introduced to the players practicing on the field. How cool it must have been! The Pittsburg Pirates played the Denver Bears as a preseason game or exhibition game. 26 signatures that I count including Bob Lemon, Vernon Law, Robin Roberts, Dick Groat...and yes including a big beautiful blue inked Roberto Clemente. I'm looking to sell it so it may soon appear in the BST forum

Im about 75% sure it is. It smells like pulling an old box of records out of your Grandparents attic...Sorry for the analogy...It also has what looks like a sun faded line on the top, which I attribute to actual sun wear. Its of a thick cardboard, not like the bristol boards used in the past few decades. If you have any other way for me to tell any type of era, that would be fantastic. It looks like the Spalding balls from the 20's and 30's, and at .20 -.50c per ball, I would say that it would be correct.

The balls shown on that advertisement all date to the 1880-90s...I'm not an expert on old paper, but I'd be wary of it. If you have any shows in your area I'd take it and show it around. A few years ago a flea marketeer showed up at our local and everything in his booth was fake..lots of Civil War stuff, slave badges, etc...then I started seeing the same ad showing up in our local antique malls.

Just got this one in the mail...it is the first Nebraska Indians ticket of any kind that I've ever seen. And actually a pretty ingenious idea from Mr Guy W. Green the Neb Indians owner..since they played most of their games in small towns with small ballparks they had no way to tell who had paid and who had sneaked in so the ticket doubled as a tag the patrons would have to wear.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...bindticket.jpg


This is the 1912 or 13 Superior Brickmakers of the Nebraska State League...it is significant because it is the earliest known baseball collectible showing Dazzy Vance.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n92/vance1.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n92/vance2.jpg

Those are two incredible finds Dan. You've been doing pretty good lately, congrats.

1938 Sioux City Trophy Ball
 

Recently, I won this 1938 Sioux City Trophy ball from eBay for the price of $20.00 (shipped)...Appears to be written on by a fan and singed by players (later traced over)! Really excited about this one because one of the "signatures" is Pete Monahan. I actually have a game used sidewritten bat of Monahan and he played in Lexington, KY during 1922 (very close to my home)!

Couple of bats...
 

Picked up and old one. I assume that it may be late 19th century, but perhaps a more knowledgable bat collector would place it older? The seller indicated thy it may be from the 1870's-'80's. 30.5 inches with great patina/use, flattened end and a mushroom knob/handle.

The modern gamer is a JP Arencibia, Jays bat from 2010 ( also picked up today) for size comparison).

http://i518.photobucket.com/albums/u...e/ba519264.jpg

Deleted

Ebay win last week 1924 Souix City Team

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y20...gjutrOyQ_3.jpg

Here's my newest pick up,an 1879 Wright and Ditson Scorecard/Advertisement:

Great picture Murph! Hey I have Swede Risberg book at home and he mentioned after his banishment days playing against the Sioux City Team on a fairly regular basis I believe.

Lipset - NY scorecards - lot #376
 

Hi guys -

I didn't want to clutter the memorabilia section with multiple posts, so I though this would be a good place...


I was the high bidder and after I receive them, will be looking to unload any that are NOT scored. According to Lew, his 80 year old consigner thinks that's about half of them.

Email me at doug.goodman@earthlink.net if you are interested in 1 or all.

I collect scored scorecards / programs from all eras, leaning towards the Dodgers, and any "interesting" games.

Thanx,
Doug

Among my purchases at the Strongsville, Ohio, show today. I really do love the oddball pieces of Indians memorabilia. The "Indians emblems" piece is about the size of a license plate.

Great pickups Rob, I especially like the thermometer.. Looks like I missed a good first day. With any luck I'll be able to make it up there tomorrow. Not much money to spend right now, but there's always some great stuff to check out, and some good people to meet for some possible deals in the future.

1907 Nebraska Indians Mailing Card..from Jack Smiley to his wife.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...907nebinds.jpg http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...07nebinds2.jpg

And thanks to a Net54 lurker who saw my post in last month's pickup thread I now have two more Lincoln minor league programs...this makes 4 that I've been able to pick up already this year...that's usually how many I find in 3-4 years.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...1954chiefs.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...1959chiefs.jpg

And just got this in from MEARS...1927 Mel Harder photo with the Omaha Buffaloes

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n92/harder.jpg

Dan great pickups!!! I really like that mailing card and the final comments about the foolishness.

Here are a few of my recent pickups. I love the team photo with the palm trees (it came from Florida but I have no clue what local team it depicts). The Manchester NH advertising piece (blotter?) came with other old ephemera, but I am not positive it is not a recent construct (it looks too "clean"). I think the ticket is from the 1890s for a game in Maine.
Alan

Alan
 

Yes, Alan, it's from Maine. Freddy Parent's hometown.

Rawn

Football lot
 

Picked up the 1927 trophy and vintage helmet this week. Had the broadside for a while. Want to move it from the poster frame to a proper frame. Should make a nice display.

http://i518.photobucket.com/albums/u...e/595f940a.jpg

http://i518.photobucket.com/albums/u...e/f138e368.jpg
http://i518.photobucket.com/albums/u...e/fba50c61.jpg

HOF Ted Lyons no-hitter ticket and scorebook 8/21/26 at Fenway Park
 

Unbelievable!!

I had the tremendous good fortune to make a GREAT pickup today that I'm really excited about. I unearthed the only known extant ticket stub and scorecard to Chicago White Sox HOF great Ted Lyons' no-hitter that he pitched against the Red Sox at historic Fenway Park on August 21, 1926.

The patron that attended Lyon's big game was a local and he scored this game as well as several others at Fenway during the 1926-1927era. Additionally, there are some Hyde Park (Mass) High School baseball games scored in the scorebook.

What makes this extra special for me is that I'll be able to supply retrosheet.org with a copy of the play by play to the game so they can add it to their great database of scored games. It's always been a goal of mine to try to return the favor to retrosheet. It's been such a wonderful resource and tool that I've used extensively through the years. This is the 1st time that I've ever been able to find a scoresheet to a historic game that they can use.

I'm a happy camper! :D

Congratulations Scott!! That's a great addition to your collection.

Congrats Scott! Well done my friend! How in the world did you come across this one? You must be going door to door asking if anyone has any no-hit tickets they don't want. :D

Right on
 

Scott...Congrats nice P/U...and I like your giving back/contributing to retrosheet...Can you tell us how it all came about?....were you walking down the street and saw a garage sale sign?

Hi Carlton, Mike and Dan,
Thanks for the nice words guys. OK, you asked for the back story, so here it is:
Some of you know that I have been a collector of no-hit games for many years (2011 is my 39th year of collecting this theme). To say I have an incredible network of great collector friends would be a gross understatement...

As far as today's discovery goes, the Ted Lyons ticket and scorebook was actually discovered by a friend of a friend based out of Massachusetts. He visited a antique store in a suburb of Boston this morning and spotted the ticket and scorebook in a glass case.

This collector asked the antique dealer if he had any other baseball tickets and memorabilia to which the dealer responded that he did, and only last weekend a gentleman walked into his store with quite a few vintage Red Sox baseball tickets (over 200) that came from one family's collection from over 80 years. My friend Tony Swann (the ultimate Carlton Fisk collector) purchased these as this is something that he collects. If you want to blow your mind, look at his cool website carltonfisk.com!!

Long story short, thanks to the iPhone, the collector visiting the antique store sent the photos over to my friend, who in turn forwarded them to me.
We negotiated a bit on the price and 5 minutes later, there you go, I add the Ted Lyons no-hitter stub and scorebook to my collection. BTW, I now own tickets to over 168 no-hitters dating back to 1910.

Excuse me for the shameless plug, but I am always looking for tickets to vintage no-hitter games that I can add to my personal collection. Please let me know if you have anything that you feel would help another fellow die-hard collector.

Good collecting,
Scott ;)

Nice story....I noticed the Iphone assisted...These smart phones are really something....now with the capability to send photos on the spot it opens up possibilties....the other day I was at a fea market in Roseville Ca and saw a Heinie Groh bottle bat for $1,200.00...I took photos and sent them to my friend Chris Galbreath in Tennessee... but it was retail....said he sold one for about that..I just got the phone so it was my first time sending photos on the spot...my old phone's camera and system was too clunky to do mess with.

You can set your phone to send photos right to facebook, photobucket, or someones email address or phone number...I suppose Leon could have an app made that would allow us to upload from our phones straight to
Net54Baseball.com...

<a href="http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc120/CarltonHendricks/?action=view&amp;current=2011-04-10131009.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc120/CarltonHendricks/2011-04-10131009.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc120/CarltonHendricks/?action=view&amp;current=2011-04-10131114.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc120/CarltonHendricks/2011-04-10131114.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc120/CarltonHendricks/?action=view&amp;current=2011-04-10131039.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc120/CarltonHendricks/2011-04-10131039.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Do you mean the price was retail or the bat? Cause that's a pro model bat.

bat
 

The price was retail...the seller said "he was told" it was a gamer because of what he called the cleat marks on the barrel edge...Please don't shoot the messenger just telling you what the seller told me

<a href="http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc120/CarltonHendricks/?action=view&amp;current=2011-04-10131211.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc120/CarltonHendricks/2011-04-10131211.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

I think players and friends saved a lot more of Heinie's Bottle bats than other people because it was a novelty. I have owned 2 different (an early reach which was CORKED and a H&B 125). In my opinion there are 20-30 at least known to exist which is A LOT for a 1910's-1920's player. Still should be worth more but Chris is right, these are $800 - $1200 bats but cool for sure!

Rhys

I picked up this 1970 Minnesota Twins banner. These are pretty tough to come by so I was pleased to add it to my collection.

Beautiful Twins Banner! Great condition, too.... wonderful pickup :)

1938 Chattanooga Lookouts :
 

I'm a Pepper...you're a Pepper... wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too ? (Keep your eye on the ball!)

Beautiful Twins Banner! Great condition, too.... wonderful pickup :)

Thank you! I was very excited to get it as this one doesn't show up to often and to have it be in great condition was an added bonus.

Amos Strunk photo
 

[IMG]http://www.net54baseball.com/picture...pictureid=3525[/IMG]

Just got in the mail. Definitely not vintage but has a lot of meaning for me. In this game, a kid (Mason Tobin) that I coached in junior college made his MLB debut. The first kid that I coached to reach the show.

Very cool Mike- congrats! ;)

No picture yet, but picked up a fantastic Spaulding Model Bat of Roger Breshnahan from MGHPro at the Oaks show !!

My pick ups from Oaks.

I picked up this gem last week and got it in the mail today. The seller did not know who most of the people were in the book so I took a chance and asked for more scans and was surprised to see how many big names were in here. Mostly non-sports (some really big names though) but a Turkey Mike Donlin and a Lou Gehrig as well as Pop Warner, Barney Oldfield and Duke Kahanomoku as well as others. I LOVE vintage autograph books and this one is cool because the signatures are "tipped in" so they are larger at the top and the glue is on the fold line behind it and not directly below the autographs so no bleed through.

Rhys Yeakley

Here are the rest of the pages. I have not looked up any of the State Governors (there are almost 40/48) to see if they are famous yet.

Rhys

I was happy to add these to my collection this month...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...lCaseyHOFC.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...eyHOFCback.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ent-Torrez.jpg

Wow... that is really great! Kudos!

Rhys: That is a fantastic book of signatures, a regular Who's Who of the early twentieth century. Bing Crosby, Radio Crooner . . Tom Mix, Screen Star . . Mike Donlin, Giant Tosser . . Franklin Roosevelt, Nominee for President of the U.S., Grantland Rice, Clark Gable, Jack Dempsey, Paul Whiteman etc etc. That will be a fun book to own.

WOW...what a nice pickup, Rhys...and quite an eclectic grouping....Laurel and Hardy, Howard Hughes, Gehrig, Lawrence Tibbits....wasn't Tibbits the opera singer that sold his house to Bugsy Siegel (at least in the movie)?

Nice pick-ups Matt. The Testi piece is really cool. What does it say?

Holy crap Rhys!!! That's a great pickup...so what is the best (ie. most expensive) autograph in the book?

Thanks Dan.

I think the Howard Hughes and the Gehrig are probably both similar in prices. There are a bunch of other nice ones, but not as valuable. There are a bunch of second tier guys that are in the $300-$1000 range, but those are the two best.

I have owned several other Watermans autograph books and there seem to be a bunch of Ruth signatures in them but this is the first Gehrig I have seen in one of these albums.

The girl who put it together wrote letters to the people inside so many have salutations under the glued part of the signature.

The Charlie Chaplin is a stamp.

Rhys

Yes- great pickup Matt! I'm also curious what the writing says, as well as the composition of the statue. Is it heavy (bronze) or light (galvano)?

Great looking figural... congrats!

Spectacular autograph book Rhys. Congrats on what has to be one of the best April pickups for sure!! :eek:

Amazing book ..wow..

Anyways, my little contribution is something not valuable but cool. I found these two scorebooks at a flea market. Spalding and Statis score. someone LOVINGLY filled in games, w great detail, esp the 67 one (see part of Red Sox/KC A's game) Sportswriter, whatever, or a guy who just watched tv, lots of games in NY/Bos, but other cities too.

I don't know, but great history recorded here. at least 20-25 games or more per book, plus he even listed HR's for the games he scored, etc. May sell them, but regardless, this stuff just is so cool IMO. Games w Mantle Maris HR's so much more included, incl Mantle HR off Barney Schultz

Here's a close up of the writing. The figure is a bronze. Its a heavy piece.
Matt

Fred Sanford.....too funny.....I always wondered what he did before he became a junkman in El Segundo!

1949 Black's Baseball Guide
 

Another neat Black's Annual Baseball Guide, this one from 1949 with Lou Boudreau on the cover. From the Oaks show this past weekend. Same dealer who had the Feller version in March!