November pickups

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by btcarfagno

1927 PCL Champion Oakland Oaks Team Signed Ball with Jimmie Reese, Buzz Arlett and a rookie Ernie Lombardi...







Tom C

Tom,
I agree with Scott that that really is a great ball. Congrats on your pickup!

BTW, Jimmie Reese was sure a great guy to know. For those of you that don't know this, Jimmie was famous for being one of Babe Ruth's roomies (1930-1931) when he played on the NY Yankees. He used to joke about the fact that he actually only roomed with the Babe's suitcase, but he never saw Ruth because he was always out on the town carousing...

I personally got a chance to talk to Jimmie for many years as a season ticket holder with the California Angels, where he was an absolute wizard with a fungo bat all the way into his 90's. The things that he could do with that magic fungo bat would make your head spin! He was regarded as the most prolific fungo hitter in baseball history.

To say that Jimmie Reese was an absolute baseball treasure is a major understatement. He had many friends throughout baseball in every city as Jimmie was involved in baseball for over 78 seasons. He broke into his baseball career as a batboy for the Los Angeles Angels of the PCL in 1917 and was on the Cal Angels payroll as a conditioning coach until he passed away at 93.

I knew him well enough that I attended his funeral in Santa Ana, CA in 1994. The amount of active and retired baseball players in attendance was staggering; a true testiment to how many people he touched in his life! Not surprisingly he was extremely close with many of the players that played for the Cal Angels through the years. Nolan Ryan, Reggie Jackson and Jim Abbott were some of his personal favorites...

In my own collection I have saved a number of special Jimmie Reese momentos. My most prized piece related to Jimmie is one of his fungo bats from the 1980's which he personally gave to me. I was also given all of his Christmas cards from the last couple of years that he was alive. Several of the letters that accompanied these were very personal and discussed baseball. Many years ago I was given a copy of the first audio interview of Nolan Ryan and Jimmie Reese in early 1972 when they first bonded. Here are a couple of other items that I saved in his memory:

1) A B/W signed photo of Jimmie in action in 1972 at Anaheim. This was the year that Jimmie joined the Angels coaching staff and Nolan joined the Angels after being traded by the NY Mets for Jim Fregosi. Nolan Ryan credits Jimmie as being influential in having him realize how hard he really needed to work to get into the physical condition to be a consistent winner in baseball.

2) A rather grainy photo (sorry, I'm not a great photographer) of Ryan and Jimmie catching up during batting practice and workout prior to the All Star game in Anaheim in 1989. Despite its lack of clarity, I do love this photo because it shows the enduring great friendship between Nolan and Jimmie Reese. As a side note, Nolan's 2nd born son was named Reese after Jimmie. That's my Ryan game used mitt from 1989 that Nolan is holding in the photo. I've shared photos of this mitt on net54 a couple of times.

3) The memorial program that I received when I attended his funeral in 1994

[Shoeless Moe]

......the 1st thing I missed out on on Ebay was an ungraded 1919 regular season White/Black Sox Ticket Stub. I meant to bid but was new to Ebay and hit the bid button too late. Been kickin' myself ever since.

I've been watching weekly for years and have never seen a regular season stub come up again, seen plenty of World Series ones, but not regular season, so finally I have redeemed myself.

(Very neat 1919 home schedule on the back)

[BrockJacob]

This jumbo panoramic postcard has always been an item that caught my eye, so I am extremely excited to add this very nice condition example to my collection. Included with the postcard were 2 ticket stubs. One for the Sox game against the Tigers on June 26 1911 where the original owner purchased the postcard, and one for the Cubs game the day before where they took on the Pirates. Makes me wonder if this guy purchased the West Side Park version of this postcard when he went to see the Cubbies?

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by BrockJacob

This jumbo panoramic postcard has always been an item that caught my eye, so I am extremely excited to add this very nice condition example to my collection. Included with the postcard were 2 ticket stubs. One for the Sox game against the Tigers on June 26 1911 where the original owner purchased the postcard, and one for the Cubs game the day before where they took on the Pirates. Makes me wonder if this guy purchased the West Side Park version of this postcard when he went to see the Cubbies?

Brock,
I would suspect that you are correct, FWIW. Congrats!

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by BrockJacob

This jumbo panoramic postcard has always been an item that caught my eye, so I am extremely excited to add this very nice condition example to my collection. Included with the postcard were 2 ticket stubs. One for the Sox game against the Tigers on June 26 1911 where the original owner purchased the postcard, and one for the Cubs game the day before where they took on the Pirates. Makes me wonder if this guy purchased the West Side Park version of this postcard when he went to see the Cubbies?

Isn't that the White Sox park that was re-vamped in March, 1911 to be used by Rube Foster's team? If so, he probably bought the postcard the previous season.

[MGHPro]

Picked these up today.. the top one is not felt.. does anyone know how old it is?
Thanks
Matt

[39special]

Originally Posted by MGHPro

Picked these up today.. the top one is not felt.. does anyone know how old it is?
Thanks
Matt

Great looking pennants!!!

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by MGHPro

Picked these up today.. the top one is not felt.. does anyone know how old it is?
Thanks
Matt

Wow!!! Those are amazing. Congrats.
Doug

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by MGHPro

Picked these up today.. the top one is not felt.. does anyone know how old it is?
Thanks
Matt

Matt:

Good news and bad....

Bad news first... The top one is a repro- albeit an older reproduction pennant. It was probably made in the late '80s. There is a very similar NY Giants example out there. Both of them surface somewhat frequently. This one still has value, but if properly disclosed as a repro, it only realizes $30 or so. If sold on ebay as original (which it often mistakenly is), it tends to sell in the $75 - $85 range. Novice collectors will shell out this amount ,where advanced collectors (with deeper pockets) know the difference and typically stay away.

The good news... The bottom pennant is extremely rare and desirable. In nice condition (which yours looks to be) it is a $550 - $650 pennant. These rarely surface, and when they do, they're usually tattered. This one (with the names in the bunting) is a very difficult + popular variation.
Congrats!

[baseballart]

Wonder what came in the mail today.