Pinback Mystery Solved!
 

I just posted on my pinback blog baseballpinbackbuttons.wordpress.com the story behind the "Jackie Robinson Tells His Story to the Brooklyn Eagle" pin. An incomplete post was inadvertently published yesterday. If you collect pins or just like the mystery surrounding baseball memorabilia, I think you will like the post.

Paul

Thank you for the education Paul. Your commitment to furthering the great hobby of pinback collecting is second to none and your contributions to the collective knowledge base are tremendously valuable. Keep up the great work:D.

So glad to read the final version!

It is crazy....just crazy....that these are so rare. Just like that stupid 3" Ken Henderson pin I've been looking for for 20 years. :p

Nice work Paul!

-
 

sweet read- I would love to see pictures on these jackie buttons. Think you can get every letters and put it together? :)

Thanks Paul -- great read!

Greg

Paul's pic:

Jackie Brooklyn Eagle
 

Paul,

You always do great detective work. I love the story and the facts you have to back it up. Because you see so few Brooklyn Eagle Jackie pins (regardless of the lettering) I would think the newspaper did not distribute as many pins as they would have you believe.

Great to see the blog again.

Jay Zimmerman

Rob and Jay,

Rob, thanks for retrieving the image of the pin from a previous thread/post/column (whatever you call it). In truth it has been so long since I did a column I forgot how to insert a picture among the words. I am sure you are not surprised.

Jay, I know you are from Brooklyn and was wondering what your reaction would be to the story. Your speculation about the number of pins being less than proclaimed is plausible. I presume people could subscribe to the newspaper, and doubt if a pin was manually inserted into each issue (for ten consecutive days, no less). Did they have those square metal boxes back then where you insert a coin to open the box to retrieve a copy of the newspaper? If they did, I can't imagine the Brooklyn Eagle attaching a pin to each issue of the newspaper in the vending machine. That leaves person-to-person points-of-sale as the only other possible way to get a copy of the paper. I also don't know if the Brooklyn Eagle was sold outside of Brooklyn. The ad specifically states the pins were being given out only in Brooklyn. We could probably track down the total circulation of the newspaper, then guestimate how many were sold through news stands. This is the joy/agony of collecting pins. Even when you are lucky enough to track down the origin of a pin, there are some parts to the story that you still don't understand.

Jackie Brooklyn Eagle pin
 

Paul,

I was the exception to the rule-I was a Brooklyn Dodger fan living in the Bronx in the 50's. I don't have a clue to the distribution of the Eagle. My guess would be that it was a tough sell with NY having the News, Mirror, Journal American, the Post, Herald Tribune and the Times all with substantial followings.

I have been collecting Dodger pins for over 30 years and haven't seen many of these for sale or auction. To me, the advertising might have been pure hype-they had some pins in circulation to try and stimulate sales. If they really were sent to candy stores or distributors we would have seen boxes of these show up sooner or later.

By the way, I still need one for my collection

Jay

Paul - great story. I love your book and blog...makes collecting the old pins much more interesting. I have one complaint though...not enough Reds pin stories : )

I'm enjoying reading about the possible distribution of these pins. All theories are plausible but, as Paul says, we may never know for sure.

My first thought was that the pins would be given away with papers bought outside Ebbetts Field. The SF Chronicle has long done this outside of Candlestick and now AT&T. I checked Retrosheet, hoping to see that the Dodgers were on a long homestand between August 15th and 24th. Alas, they were home for three, in Boston for four and back home for three.