My REAL "Grandpa's basement" find!

[scooter729]

Of course we all enjoy the eBay stories of the Wagners and Ruths from Grandpa's attic. Well, although it wasn't quite to that extent, I did get quite a nice surprise this weekend!

My wife and her mother were going through all kinds of old photos and stuff which belonged to her grandfather, in order to make a photo album for Christmas for him. All of these things had been tucked away in his basement for decades.

I have always loved discussing baseball with her grandfather, who always told me stories of going to legendary games in NY during the 1940s and 50s, including the World Series games with the Mays catch in '54, and the Don Larsen perfect game in '56. I always told him I wished he had saved his ticket stubs or something from those games, but he said that was never an important thing at the time.

Well, my wife called and asked me if I "had any interest in some old programs that say World Series on them," or should she throw them out. I jumped out of my chair in excitement, and when she came home later, she brought with her the programs as seen in the picture! WS programs from 1952, '54, '56 and '57 - yeah!! And as a nice bonus, there were also a Yankees 1949 and Red Sox 1951 programs in the mix. (I had to laugh at the 1953 Ice Capades program in the same group as well!)

All of them are in really nice shape, except the '54 program, with some cover issues. But this really made my weekend, and just goes to show, there really are some finds to be had "in Grandpa's basement!"

[barrysloate]

That is a cool find. It's tough to find nice programs because they weren't always made with good quality paper. Some of the ones from the 40's and 50's can get awfully brittle.

[Tsaiko]

Waay cool - congratulations on the find.

[Oldtix]

Congratulations! I have a 1934 World Series program that belonged to my Grandfather...it reminds us how important baseball has been to many generations....

[ktwilli71]

Where the pic of the 1953 Ice Capades program........

[scooter729]

That Ice Capades one is staying with me - the rest with be on the BST later tonight.



(Just kidding - I love these programs, and now have a direct tie to his great stories of being at Larsen's perfect game, Mays' catch, etc. They're priceless!)

[sox1903wschamp]

Great stuff Scott!

[wolterse]

Scott, what a great story and some incredible items! Congrats!!!