Your 2023 Pick Up of the Year
 

Let's see your favorite pick up of 2023. Mine is this 1876 Chicago display piece.

Tough choice, but probably this 1919 World Series program.

It’s tough to identify one favorite pick up from this year. Nonetheless I’ll play by the rules. This "Sportsman Award" presented to Roberto Clemente on July 24, 1970, during "Roberto Clemente Night" ceremonies at Three Rivers Stadium is my favorite addition. It originated directly from the Clemente family. The large brass plaque bears a portrait image of Clemente engraved at the top with the following inscription: "Sportsman Award To Roberto Clemente/Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Club/Friday, July, 24, 1970/ For Outstanding Athletic and Humanitarian Achievements/Presented By/Allegheny County Civic Sportsmen's Association/Pittsburg, Pennsylvania." It measures 15 x 19 and was matted and framed to total dimensions of 20.5 x 25.5 inches. I believe it’s one of the prettier awards given to him that night. The engraved portrait and mention of his humanitarianism checked all of the boxes for me. This photo really doesn’t do it justice.

I will go with this Honus Wagner letter, written on hotel stationery in the middle of the 1933 baseball season. It conveys several things about Wagner: he had good friends like this "Arty," he loved outdoor activities like fishing, but most of all, he was devoted to the Pittsburg Pirates, with whom he was either a player or a coach for sixty years!

My Bill Stoneman's 1972 game worn Expos Road Flannel..and then meeting Bill

I picked up this P72 Wade Boggs Pro Stock/Team Index bat from a fellow member in a trade. Finding a Boggs Pro Stock that is not a C235 or B349 is fairly rare and if at a reasonable price I pick them up. I still need to clean it up a little and retape the handle. I also need to get off my lazy butt and build another bat display. I have a decent display that holds 20 bats with another 20 leaning against it that should be in a display.

Vandy & The Schnozz
 

I have had a few really nice pickups in 2023, but these two circa 1938-1939 era Goldsmith personally endorsed gloves stand out as being extra cool!

Vandy's VDM model glove is a genuine toughee and it took me over a dozen years to find one to complete my collection of his 4 different Goldsmith endorsed gloves and D&M endorsed glove.
The Ernie Lombardi Model ML catchers mitt was a Christmas gift from my son, Sam that arrived in today's mail.
A perfect pairing of the complete battery of the only time that a ML pitcher hurled back-to-back no-hitters.

The eBay seller of both gloves sent me an unexpected surprise as well.
A 1938 Ernie Lombardi Val Decker Packing postcard. Also rare and a nice addition to my collection.

Happy New Year and Good Collecting to everyone on net54! :cool:;)

I am always blown away at what is shown in these type of threads. Gary, that is an amazing item. Do you have any other information about it (e.g. who made it, what it was made for, etc.)? Jim, great program and I really like that you found it antique shopping as I do the same. Mike, that Clemente award is incredible and must look really cool in person. Rob, that is a great letter. Guy and Ben, great game used items! Scott, those gloves are in really nice condition.

It was a tough choice for me as well but I went with the photo shown below. It shows a women's basketball team with 97 on their sweaters but the photo was taken in November 1895, about four years after basketball was created. The photographer is from Poughkeepsie NY and the women's names are on the back. The history of this piece trumped other finds I had this year which included a full women's basketball uniform from the 1910s, a few early bats, an 1882 baseball trophy ball, and other cool things.

Alan

Vassar Class of 1897 Basketball Team
 

Alan, that’s a great image. It’s the Vassar ‘97 class team. Congrats!!

Original photo in Vassar ‘96 Yearbook
 

Original photo in Vassar ‘96 Yearbook.

Champions November 1895.
 

Champions November 1895.

Shown before, but it would have to be this, the earliest Babe Ruth item I own. Purchased at one of the Philly shows.

1916 M114 Red Sox…

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Thank you Joe! I really appreciate the information! I thought there was a college in the area but I had not researched it further. It will be fun to read up on the team and it is really cool there are other images of the team online. I also like that they won a championship. Thank you again for your help.

Alan

Here’s my favorite, a gate separating the stands from the playing field at Forbes Field.

Wow Gary, truly amazing pick up, congrats!!


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Favorite pickup
 

This September 11,1948 perfect game semi final playoff game used baseball pitched by Marge Holegson and signed by 15 of the Rockford Peaches players.....along with most of the collection that once was saved by former Rockford Peaches bat girl Doris Calacurcio.

All great pickups. Mine would be this 1979 Dave Winfield game used bat from the Eric Gregg estate.

Great stuff, guys!

I think this is pretty easy for me. I've been looking for one of these for years. I had four ebay searches, each with different word combinations. One finally popped up, at a decent price. The second example I've ever seen. It came from the kid of a former Giants player. I have since found a suitable vintage pen but I'm too lazy to re-photograph it.

That gate is spectacular!

This signed, commemorative program from WaJo's 50th birthday celebration in 1937:

Great pick-up, Val! That's the best of those I've ever seen, and the only one not folded in half. I have the panorama from that event, an assemblage of D.C. elites to honor Walter at the Mayflower Hotel.

I’d have to say my mid 1960’s game used Willie Mays bat directly from a former batboy at Forbes Field.

1916 type 1 Ruth photo with Red Sox teammates hunting with shotguns in New Hampshire (Draper Maynard factory visit)

Another addition to my federal league collection. Sorry about the size.

Beautiful Pennant!

From the original owner whom attended the September 29, 1957 NY Giants last game at Polo Grounds stadium is this pennant.

https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/sept...e-in-new-york/

Favorite find in the wild: large team photo wearing grandma's drapes. Found in North Idaho antique store.

Favorite Net54 pickup: 1990 Barry Larkin GU bat with stadium certificate. Really grateful for the member who sold it!

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I don't expect to see another one soon...
 

and I had the money in hand, so I had to jump on this one

My final pickup of the year and I think it's pretty cool. The top is a composite photo (Type 3) sold last week by Goldin. I have had the bottom photo of Ruth's feet for years. Yeah, sort of an odd ball photo, but obvious from verso that its the TYpe 1 photo used for the composite. Neither photo particularly expensive but together I like it.

Pristine photos are cool, but working photos like this are very cool. I like the markings on old photos.

This thread is mind-boggling.

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Here's a mid-1940s St. Louis Browns cap I recently found on eBay.

Stunning! Who pained the Babe Ruth Nat Fein image? What a mastery of impressionism.... just beautiful.

That's a beauty Chris... super rare for eBay to have something like that. Congrats!

Thanks Jamie...

Here is my best, and the runner-up for 2023...

The Reds Jersey is a super-scarce 1956 Vest... a single-year style that never surfaces. Been searching for one for 3 decades and finally secured one. This is Monk Meyer's 1956 home jersey with "Mr. Red" proudly featured on the left breast.

Runner-up (to me) is the re-acquisition of a Spalding 1st Baseman Trophy. I used to have all five, but regretfully sold them. Now I'm back up to three, and still in need of the Pitcher and Catcher.

Congrats everyone on these amazing acquisitions in 2023!

great uniform! congrats on finally securing the vest.

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Have to go with this Napoleon Lajoie photo shot by Van Oeyen. Not a lot of Lajoie photos out there...

1903 nyal
 

This 1903 NYAL schedule is a museum piece

Great stuff, guys!

I was happy to add these to my (and my son's) collection this past year...Thanks to Jeff for the Jeter Rookie Lineup card.

Great photo. Look at that base! Could you imagine players today running around those bases lol.

That was one of the first things I noticed too! It looks like an old sack full of dirt!

Gary Thank for starting thread and anything with Spalding is always great to see. It was a good year, my program collection grew in interesting ways. My favorite is this 1902 Stanley Cup Challange program Manitoba vs Toronto.

I think they were!

Spikes in those days were no joke. If they could tear up a base like that imagine what they could do to skin and bone. It was a very different game.

2023 was slow for me, but I did add a couple items.

1927 Gehrig and Ruth at ND vs USC football game

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1929 Spring Training
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1931 Gehrig and Ruth with Jackie Mitchell. She is the female pitcher who supposedly struck both of them out in an exhibition game.

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Fabulous photo, Mark. Wonderful period piece. All those young Terrors of America and Gehrig with a cigaret at the ready. At first I thought the lad in the back row was digging his nose for all posterity but quickly realized his faced was photo-bombed by the short kid's waving hand.

Great items in this thread.

I was really pleased to pick up this relic from the 1914 Overland Day baseball game. I'm looking for articles and photos about the game if anyonen comes upon them.

1914 Philadelphia Public Ledger Sports Magazine
 

This may not be the most valuable item I got but it certainly my favorite. Eddie plank, Grover Alexander and Chief Bender on the baseball side. There is also a picture of 20 year old Walter Hagen along with Francis Quimet on the golf side.

signed satchel paige RC is definitely #1 for 2023 for me