Moonlight Graham

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Further proving the point that people continue to shell out large amounts of money for the memorabilia of a real person based on the collective love of a mostly contrived book and movie character. I hope people can realize that they're so enamored because of the talents of Burt Lancaster and Frank Whaley, along with Bill Kinsella. This Moonlight Graham love really has nothing to do with the real man who took care of school kids in Chisholm. The name's the same, but so much diverges from that point. I think it's preposterous, but there's no right or wrong way to consider the matter, I suppose.

Conversely, it makes perfect sense to me that people pay high amounts for anything to do with Eddie Gaedel. Yeah, he wasn't really an MLB player, but wait--he really was, and there's a contract to prove it! Yes, a publicity stunt, but all sealed up in a then-legal manner! Gaedel did take an actual at bat in a Major League game. What happened, happened. Those are the facts; his collectability derives from 100% true events. Funny to consider the outcome if Veeck hadn't signed him to a player contract. Say this stunt had happened in between a double header. Cain still pitched to Gaedel, Swift and Hurley still behind the plate. Everything was the same aside from Gaedel actually stepping into a game. He'd have been nearly completely forgotten about; barely a footnote. Very few people would have had any interest in his memorabilia which would carry extremely reduced price tags regardless of rarity.

Of course, unproven and sometimes laughably false legends can serve to inflate collectability and value of certain people's memorabilia. Usually, these tales are add-ons to proven events which are what truly brought the celebrity their fame. Until Bill Kinsella came along needing a groovy name for his book character, Archibald Graham languished in the near-total obscurity that some might say is deserving of such a modest baseball career. While a decent human being, the real Graham contributed absolutely nothing to drive the value and interest in his memorabilia to another stratosphere. Flip through your baseball encyclopedia; there's Graham after Graham after Graham. Perhaps not the same surname or stats, but a veritable ton of players with similarly minuscule MLB careers. Alas, Kinsella's index finger landed on Graham, and the rest is (one kind of) history.

The Delorean comparison as noted earlier has merit to a point, but then there are definitely differences. Yes, it's a hunk of junk, but the design was so representative of the era in which it was created. Let's also not forget its infamy due to the cocaine smuggling! It would still have ended up eliciting nostalgia for many people even if it was never featured in an iconic movie. Their value wouldn't be the same, but there would still be lots of interest and strong collectability as an anomalous, aesthetically pleasing piece of the 1980's.