The tradition of presidents honoring sports teams goes back more than 150 years. According to ESPN, the first recorded instance of a team visiting the White House was Aug. 30, 1865, when President Andrew Johnson welcomed the Brooklyn Atlantics and Washington Nationals. But how about when the president travels to honor a championship team? That occurred Oct. 3, 1911, when … [Read more...]
Joel Platt Sports Immortals Collection Featured
There are guys with great sports memorabilia collections. Then there's Joel Platt. Housed inside its own museum in Florida, Platt's all-encompassing, lifelong effort is staggering. Mind-boggling. Historic. You could use every superlative imaginable and you still wouldn't have enough "oohs" and "aahs" to adequately and properly describe The Sports … [Read more...]
Book Tells America’s Story Through Sports Memorabilia
Spring training games are still a month away. The Super Bowl won’t be here for almost two weeks. Basketball remains at mid-season. It’s a good time to do some reading and for collectors, a new book might be worth picking up. “A History of American Sports in 100 Objects” takes the reader on a ride through time by way of iconic memorabilia. Author … [Read more...]
2016 World Series Program Includes 3 Different Versions
If World Series tickets were little out of your price range, a program from this year’s historic encounter between two championship starved franchises is probably not. After the Cubs knocked off the Dodgers in the NLCS, the finishing touches were applied to the 2016 World Series program that was available for sale in both teams’ home parks and also across the … [Read more...]
Auravision Records Were A Hit With Baseball Fans
Beatlemania was in full swing in 1964, and so were records — 45 RPM singles and 33 1/3 “long-playing” albums. If a household did not own a “Victrola” (a fancy name for what later was called a turntable), then portable record players would suffice. Kenner’s Close N Play is a good example. In 1964, Auravision Records brought major-league baseball players to that popular … [Read more...]
Collecting Sports Movie Ephemera
From Raging Bull to Breaking Away a great number of motion pictures since the silent era have been about sports. Further, many sports stars have appeared in movies, some even making multiple appearances, including Babe Ruth, Jim Brown, Sonja Henie and Johnny Weismuller. This column looks at some of the standard types of ephemera from movies, whether it's The Pride of the … [Read more...]
The Many Forms of Vintage Sports Lithography
Invented in the late 1800s, chromolithography was revolutionary for two reasons. First, it could produce vividly colorful graphics popular with the public. Second, unlike other types of printing, it could be printed to many different surfaces, including metal, ceramics, cloth and leather. The following is a brief gallery of the different forms of vintage sports … [Read more...]
More Teams Hop on Paperless Ticket Train
If a big league pitcher throws a no-hitter or perfect game in the coming years, the chances of anyone owning a ticket or ticket stub from the game are getting smaller. Add the Chicago White Sox to the list of teams that are all but doing away with traditional ticket stubs and forcing fans to print their own or download them to their phone. If you’re not a collector, it’s … [Read more...]
Free Downloadable Guide to Identifying Materials in Antiques
I've come out with a new beginner's e-book guide to identifying common materials in antique memorabilia and collectibles, including sports items. You can download it for free here. Materials (ceramics, wood, metal, fur, plastic, paper, etc) is a massive, ongoing area of study and research. There have been volumes of literature written just on diamonds, a university professor … [Read more...]
Looking at the Photos of George Grantham Bain
George Grantham Bain (1865-1944) was a famed American news photographer based primarily in New York City. He first worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and United Press in the late 1890s before starting his own company, Bain News Service. Today, he is famed for his wonderful and often candid images of newsworthy subjects large and small, including sports stars, suffragette … [Read more...]