He grew up near Ebbets Field in Brooklyn so there really was no doubt which big league baseball team he’d root for, but decades later, he’s still connected to the Dodgers through a collection that’s hard to beat.
He lives in Riverside, CA now and is a collector who has a lot of everything, from rare baseball cards (vintage and current) to historic programs to bats and the autographed photos that hang on his wall. There are over 250,000 Dodgers-related items in all that take up a good chunk of the space in his home (yes, his wife is OK with it).
“Some guys have a man cave. I have a man house,” he told Spectrum 1 in Southern California, which recently stopped by his home to talk with him and get a tour of some of his museum-worthy collection. The segment is worth five minutes of your time.
What would you give away during the weekend of the Hall of Fame’s new baseball card exhibit? Cards, of course.
The Hall handed out two different strips of three cards featuring players who participated in the annual Hall of Fame Classic game at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown. Many were also on hand for the ribbon-cutting of the Shoebox Treasures exhibit.
Here’s what they looked like:
A few have made their way to eBay and according to one seller, less than 1,000 were given away.
Rollie Fingers managed “Team Rollie” with coaches Bert Blyleven and Tim Raines. Goose Gossage managed “Team Goose” with coaches Trevor Hoffman and Alan Trammell.
Thanks to Yao Ming, the Houston Rockets became a hot topic in China years ago. Yao is long retired and now in the Hall of Fame but the Rockets have remained popular. The team gave back some of that love again this year by wearing alternate jerseys that have Chinese characters on the front with a slightly different color scheme.
Worn in February, the jerseys are now up for auction, including one donned by James Harden as he assaulted the NBA record books.
Harden’s number 13 jersey, worn February 1 and 4, is among the hottest items at NBA Auctions. In the February 4 game, he registered a game-high 44 points—the 20th time this season he had scored at least 40 points and the 27th straight game in which he scored 30 or more.
The jersey, a Size 50+4 inches of extra length, is registered into the NBA and MeiGray Game-Worn Jersey Authentication Program along with more than a dozen other Rockets jerseys with Chinese lettering worn in those games.
Bidding runs through June 13 on the NBA Auctions website.