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

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Posted By: Joseph

Not too many people get to see the stuff shown in the picture below, a tiny sampling of the thousands of cubic feet of baseball collectibles stored in the Hall of Fame basement in Cooperstown. The photo, which was snapped during a recent tour of the facility, should be enough to make members of this forum weep, certainly drool. Ahh, a Joe Cronin trophy... oooh, here we have some presentation silverware...looks like a Nolan Ryan jersey there on the bottom shelf. A couple of random thoughts:

1. What a waste!

2. The HOF reportedly possesses 35,000 three-dimensional objects (this does not include the 2-3 million pieces in the library). With virtual museum shelf space so cheap, you'd think that the Hall might "display" much of this stuff on their excellent web site. Perhaps this is under consideration.

3. What a waste!

4. That picture might make a great recruiting tool for auctioneers trying to lure collections from the families of ballplayers (or other possessors of "stuff") who are weighing between donation to the HOF or public sale. I'm sure the Munson & Whitey Ford families (see Hunt's upcoming All-Star auction) would rather have their artifacts loved in some basement on Long Island as opposed to sitting on a shelf in Upstate, NY.

5. What a waste!