John Rogers: From Net 54 to Prison

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by biohazard

I purchased photographs from Mary Brace on a few occasions. She was always very pleasant to do business with. I was surprised when she sold the collection. She provided me with contact information (John Rogers) of the new owner of the collection. Eventually, I was able to contact John, but due to his lack of returning email messages in a timely matter, I was never able to purchase additional photographs. Ah well, with only $150 at stake, he had bigger fish to fry.

I had a chance to see Mr. Brace on a daily basis at Wrigley Field when I worked there in the '80's and while he could be occasionally gruff, I found him to be an awesome source of baseball information. He told stories of sitting in the dugout with Ruth and Gehrig and working with and being on a first name basis with most of the legends of the game during the 20th century. The man was like a walking Cooperstown with his stories he had in his head. I was saddened to read that his negatives were sold off and even more saddened to know his family got stiffed in the process. He was a man who was proud of his work and was diligent in everything he did.

Sometimes this awesome hobby just sucks because of the few a******* that are in it......