I always knew where my collecting genes came from. My Mom is definitely a collector. That comes in many forms, but she loves oyster plates and some other things. I’ve definitely gotten some old, framed newspapers from her that she handed down to me to decorate a first apartment when the walls would have otherwise been bare. And she loves going to a flea market or an auction for all sorts of things.
On my Dad’s side it came from my Grandfather. He had a bunch of different collections and they ran a little closer to my interests. They also ran a little closer to the way I collect. He had beer cans, National Geographics, newspapers, and stamps. He probably had a lot of other things I never knew about too. But within his different collections it always seemed as though he had a hard time nailing down a PC.
My Grandfather died a while ago now, but in recent years, as my Grandmother gets less and less mobile, my Aunt’s have been going through their house to clean it up. Some of the collections they’ve sold off as no one had an interest in them. But, as they go through they’ve been finding all sorts of interesting stuff. One of my favorite things they’ve done is find things they think that I’d like to have in my collection that my Grandfather had.
First Day Clemente
I’m going to start off by saying, I don’t know much about stamps. About the only things I know about stamps is how much they cost and how I need them for TTMs. I think a “First Day of Issue” is a good thing generally, but I really don’t know how it works. So I had to look up a little about it. But I they know I love baseball so whatever they saw that was baseball they split out of the collection for me.
This is a twenty cent stamp commemorating Roberto Clemente’s 50th birthday. It was issued August 17, 1984 in his birthplace of Carolina, Puerto Rico. The stamp was designed by Juan Lopez-Bonilla of Louisville, Kentucky. It looks like a somewhat modern design. I’m not sure what stamps like this looked like at the time to compare it to though.
I wonder if my Grandfather was part of something that just sent him things like this or that he signed up for things that he wanted to collect. I never knew him to deal with people. In that respect he was a lot like me. So much of my collection was bought, but not really from someone or from trading with someone. I wish I knew that part of the story a little more.
First Issue Lou
This Lou Gehrig stamp was issued on June 10, 1989 in Cooperstown, New York. This stamp was part of the Hall of Fame’s 50th anniversary festivities.
For this one I wonder what the difference is about the stamp being on the page v. on an envelope or something like that. I couldn’t find out about this stamp online as much as the others although the sheet it comes on has some detail. The design on this was is pretty cool to me. It almost feel like a baseball card which of course I like. I love the action shot with the portrait in the background. I there there is a Fleer or Fleer Ultra product in the early-to-mid 90’s that did something similar.
This reminded me that it was always hard to pin my Grandfather down with regard to his rooting interest. He was born on Long Island, but it was well before the Mets. However, I don’t remember him being a Yankee fan at all. If I had to peg him for any team it would be the Red Sox or the Braves. I remembered he loved watching them on TBS. He watched the Mets too, but mostly because the rest of the family were fans. The funny thing was that he was such a kind man, I never knew him to root against anything. That’s why I think he just loved and rooted or lots of teams and players for lots of different reasons.
Stamp the Yard
This is a Legends of Baseball Classic Collection pane. These 33-cent stamps were issued in Atlanta, George on July 6th, 2000. They were designed by Phil Jordan from Falls Church, Virginia (just a stones throw away from where I am right now) and illustrated by Joseph Saffold of Savannah, Georgia.
At the time baseball was putting together an All-Century team and most of these players were part of that. All of theme are Hall of Famers. The players include: Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Eddie Collins, Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, George Sisler, Rogers Hornsby, Mickey Cochrane, Walter Johnson, Roberto Clemente, Lefty Grove, Tris Speaker, Cy Young, Jimmie Foxx, Pie Traynor, Satchel Paige, Honus Wagner, Josh Gibson, Dizzy Dean, and Lou Gehrig.
I’m thinking all of these panels are purchases from a Post Office or something like that. It just seems that way with the way they are labelled. I think I can definitely say he didn’t buy them online.
This is my favorite of the panes that I have. These are 34-cent stamps detailing Baseball’s Legendary Playing fields. They were issue on June 27, 2001 in the different cities where these fields were. Just like the baseball legends, Phil Jordan from Falls Church, Virginia was the designer.
There are ten fields on these stamps: Comiskey Park (Chicago), Ebbets Field (Brooklyn), Crosley Field (Cincinnati), Yankee Stadium (New York City), Polo Grounds (New York City), Forbes Field (Pittsburgh), Fenway Park (Boston), Shibe Park (Philadelphia), Wrigley Field (Chicago), and Tiger Stadium (Detroit). They also included Sportsman’s Park (St. Louis) on the header of the pane.
These remind me of going to baseball games, and later Cooperstown with my Grandfather, Father, and Brother. My Grandfather was the person to teach me how to score a game. I think he did it so he could use it as an excuse not to talk. He didn’t talk much just because he was kind of shy, even with us it seemed. But he was always so neat and organized that scoring a game was like art for him. That’s the way I feel about it now.
These 32-cent stamps were issued on July, 25, 1997 in Canton, Ohio. The stamps were designed by Carl Herman of Laguna Niguel, California and Illustrated by Daniel Moore of Birmingham, Alabama. Each stamp is a portrait of a different coach including: Bear Bryant, Pop Warner, Vince Lombardi, and George Halas.
This is the only pane that wasn’t wrapped in plastic and was without a board backing it. Part of me wonders about maybe it was how they were issued given these were issue 3-4 years ahead of the other panes.
My Granddad liked football, but I think in a lot of ways liked the history of any sport more.
An Imaginative Title
Baseball Magazine… that name is really on the cutting edge. This was a magazine from July 1940. My Grandfather didn’t have many other things like this among the things he collected that I’ve seen, so I imagine that this was something he bought and kept on his own. This was before he went to the Philippines with the Army so someone helped keep it for him.
If you are interested in any particular article I could provide you more detail. It’s not really in a condition to handle and read through but I don’t mind if you are interested. I think right now what would happen would be the cover would come off.
Here are the articles listed in the contents:
- The Tell-Tale Fourth
- Junior’s Good Too
- The Bat Bag
- Casting the Players
- To Err Is Human
- Buddy’s Breaking Through
- What Your Baseball Dollar Buys
- That Holy Cross Alumnus, Desautels
- Quiz Me Again
- Pitchers in Freshman Spotlight
- The Comeback of Burgess Whitehead
- Infielder-Managers
- Second Editions of the Stars
- Polling the Players
- Maybe More Should Try It
- The Man with the Cigar
- Familiarity Does Not Breed Contempt
- Nipped in the Bud
- Tiger Trout
- The Fall of the Reds
- It Looks Like He Can’t Miss
That’s a lot of content! There might be more content in there than today’s magazines have ads.
Inside the magazine was this about Lou Gehrig. It didn’t come from the magazine. If this was from the same time (July 1940), then it was about a year before he died. I would bet that Gehrig was a guy that Pop would root for. Just a good dude rooting for another good dude.
This may have been the least special of the lot. But it still brought back memories of a different time in my life. Man, that guy kept everything.
Gift That Keep Giving
All these things have been some of my favorite gifts they’ve given me in recent years. And this isn’t even all of it. I was just going through some of my stuff and picked these up to think about some recent Christmases. Not only are these things fun to look at and learn about all over again, but they’ve provided me with a connection with my Granddad again.
It wasn’t always easy to get him to talk, but when he did he was a great story teller. As I go through these things I just think about him telling me all about them like he’s right there with me. It also makes me wish I had gotten him to tell me more stories while he was with us.