Baseball Museum
 

I am in the ideation stage of creating a baseball museum in Rochester, Michigan. It will focus on vintage baseball memorabilia and cards with special emphasis on the Detroit Tigers. It will include my Wall of Cards now missing only the Doyle. It will be non profit and my goal is to promote the great game of baseball and collecting cards and memorabilia. It will take at least a few years but I hope to make it world class and that many of you will check it out. I have learned a lot from many of you and your ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Powell

I have a million ideas :). One would be to keep in mind that it should be interesting to as many as possible, given the main subject, in order to attract more visitors. Is your thought to have it open to the public, private showings only, etc....? Good luck in the quest. There are quite a few Tigers collectors on the board.

Michigan is a good place to do it. Central location between big states, lots of folks, good baseball and sports history-- Ty Cobb to Joe Louis. I grew up in neighboring Wisconsin and my mom's side was from Michigan so I've visited many times.

Excellent idea! I would attend whenever I'm in the area, if only to see the wall of cards. :)

It goes without saying, but I would recommend a section or corner devoted to Mr. Ernie Harwell.

I am open minded. I want free admission or just enough to cover costs. I have Ernie Harwell's original scorecards from the 1984 World Series, many unique items with a focus on Cobb and vintage cards especially T-206 and Plow's Candy.
I am thinking a vintage baseball card room, 1935 room, 1968 room and 1984 room and other exhibits focused on unique items like the letter welcoming Roberto Clenente to the Pirates, a Cobb thank you letter for Ty Cobb day that never happened, Leo Duricher's letter begging for his job back while on suspension, a Black Sox era letter suggesting the Tigers threw a game for money, Sam Crawford writing about 8 Men Out, very rare autographs of Dazzy Vance, Chapman and several others. I hope to inspire interest in baseball, collecting and preserve history.

Having grown up in Michigan, I believe an area devoted to the old Tiger Stadium would get a lot of play in the area. There were a lot of hard feelings when it was abandoned.

It would also be neat to devote an area on the minor league teams of Michigan, or the Great Lakes region.

I would devote some space to the history of baseball in Michigan. Specifically, the Detroit championship in 1887 would be interesting to a lot of people I would think. If you decide to include some material relating to this I would suggest that you contact my good friend Joe Gonsowski who is one of the most knowledgeable people when it comes to this.