EXCLUSIVE photo from the HOF basement in Cooperstown, where BB collectibles go to die

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Posted By: Butch & Co.

As the source of the photo in the original post, and as a personal friend of Joe's, I'll nonetheless have to very respectfully and cordially differ with much of his outlook (and that of several other posters) on this topic... The points raised by Jared and Paul, in their posts above, are a little closer to my own viewpoint.

I'd further add that the stuff in the HOF basement hasn't exactly been buried and paved over, never to be seen again -- one, it's available to any reasonably credible fan/researcher who can articulate both an interest in the material and a request to examine it; two, displays in the Hall rotate and are updated and replenished on an ongoing basis, which sends some things currently on display back to the vaults and brings some material now in the vaults up for public display, and some portion of the vault inventory is usually called upon for temporary exhibits; and three, material in storage is often loaned to other museums for exhibit, as is currently the case with the "Baseball's League of Nations" exhibit at the Iroquois Indian Museum (recently discussed in the Memorabilia forum).

All of that makes it a lot more accessible to the public than it ever would be in the hands of a private collector, and I say that as a collector who loves to show off his stuff (modest as that collection is).

The Hall's "mission," or "agenda," is also somewhat different than that of private collectors, most of whom focus on just one or two categories of collecting anyway. The idea of preserving and protecting the entirety of baseball history, as embodied in its artifacts and memorabilia, is beyond the capabilities of even a Barry Halper. Of course, space and budget constraints put it beyond even the capabilities of the Hall, but, just me maybe, I'm glad there's a major institution devoted to that aim and open to the public. I'm all for supporting smaller (if high-quality) museums, too, but I think we're all aware that the maintenance of special-interest cultural institutions is an expensive, tricky, and perilous business. It wasn't more than a few years ago, for example, that the US Hockey Hall of Fame essentially went out of business for quite a while. What happens to the holdings of a small museum, gallery, or historic site when that sort of thing happens, as it occasionally does? How publicly available are their holdings in such an event, when their doors are locked or their inventories sold off to private collectors?

That said, I do agree, of course, that whatever can be done to make the Hall's holdings (or those of any museum or gallery) more accessible is a Good Thing. The "virtual" museum, as an on-line web project or in some marketable CD format, is a great idea. Of course, that too would be an expensive and labor-intensive undertaking. However, I'd bet the Hall would be open to any credible historian who'd volunteer to document their several million artifacts, and who'd further volunteer to build, host, and maintain the website to display them, or assemble the several million photos on a series of CDs. Anybody want to raise their hand?