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Posted By: Paul Muchinsky

Andy,

I have the little pin, but don't know what to make of it. My sincere answer to both pins is a profound "I don't know". Nevertheless, here is my speculation. The quality of the color on C.C. pin would suggest it was made after he played, perhaps many years later. It has rich flesh tones, suggestive of a sophisticated imaging technique. The Indians pins featured are highly prototypical of the era. A B/W photo surrounded by a blue inscription (I have a few of those as well, an as-yet-to-be-catalogued set). For the Chicago White Sox fans out there, did the team have a "day" or some other promotional event for him in the past 20-25 years? The W.S. were a notoriously frugal team, especially when it came to such events, so making a very small pin of C.C. would fit right in with their style. In truth, I don't know what this pin is, but I'm 99% sure it was not made when he played. His playing career pre-dates the manufacturing technology.

As far as the Mays pin, it was definitely a promo item by the Green Duck Company. A Chicago-based company, it is interesting they elected to feature Mays. Perhaps Banks was retired by then. The value of lithography in pin-making is its low cost. The bane of lithograph pins is they are easily scratched. A lithograph pin is made by first applying a base coat of paint, onto which is applied ink. Any mild ding scratches the ink, and a serious ding scrathes through the paint itself to the base metal. To reduce scratching of lithographed pins, a third clear coat was applied over the ink, in effect serving as a liquid-based equivalent of celluloid (plastic). I suspect that is the manufacturing technique being referenced on the pin. I have not seen this pin before. I would be interested to know if the small letters and numbers refer a production code. The term "P" and "PM" also became introduced to the hobby through manufacturing terminology. Since the Mays pin was made after 1969, I wonder if the lawyers at MLB sent a nasty letter to Green Duck regarding MLB holding the licensing rights to MLB images. I did some initial digging into the legal archives of MLB to find when and to what degree the enforcement of these licensing rights were put into action. Simply put, I didn't get very far. We forget how old we are and how old these issues here. Next year (2009) marks the 40th anniversary of MLB licensing their images in merchandise of all types. All I could really ascertain was the breadth of material covered by licensing rights got broader over time, and up until the mid-1970s violators were not vigorously pursued. But by the 10-year mark, a merchandiser either paid the fee or got some heavy legal heat to cease and desist. Many a "Mom-and-Pop" company of baseball merchandise were forced to throw in the towel at that point in time (sorry for the boxing metaphor).