The man formally known as the KING OF CLOUT

[Scott Garner]

I'll gladly throw my hat in that ring...
Jimmy, time to make a holiday appearance.
The ghost of Christmas past, so to speak.

Happy holidays!

[Forever Young]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

I'll gladly throw my hat in that ring...
Jimmy, time to make a holiday appearance.
The ghost of Christmas past, so to speak.

Happy holidays!

I know he is reading this. Hi jimmy

[sporteq]

I had a few emails with the "King" a couple months ago. Jimmy, your the best!

Your friend,

Albert

[GoCubsGo32]

The man was the KING OF snapshots as well! AMAZING stuff!

[thekingofclout]

Originally Posted by Forever Young

I know he is reading this. Hi jimmy

Hi Ben. A big THANK YOU to everyone who took timeout of their busy day to post such kind words. However, I no longer collect Baseball memorabilia, and the only thing the Beatles & Baseball have in common is that the Beatles also played at Shea Stadium. My very best to you all, Jimmy BTW... If anyone is interested in Beatles Photography, here's a link to my Facebook page...

https://www.facebook.com/BeatlesPhotographs/

[sayhey24]

Even if it's not about baseball, it's great to hear from you Jimmy -- always one of the best Net54ers and always a pleasure to deal with with!

Greg

[Oldtix]

Add my tip of the hat to this tribute thread - Jimmy's enthusiasm was contagious, and inspired a lot of activity on the memorabilia board. Online and offline, he's a prince of a guy. We all lost when he moved on to his other interests, yet I couldn't be happier to read of his continued quest for excellence.

Well done, my friend.

[prewarsports]

Jimmy is a great guy and always helpful in making sure that any Beatles photos I have are correctly identified and dated. He is a passionate collector, fun to talk to and I wish he was still into sports photography. Happy Holidays Jimmy!

Rhys

[Forever Young]

He loved this thread.. we had lots of conversations about it.

He also took great pride in his beatle Facebook page where he has over 18k followers. He built that and his collection in such a short amount of time. Unbelievable really.. only jimmy could accomplish this. Please Ck it out and like/comment. If reading this, I hope you were able to experience Jimmy in some way. There was only one Jimmy.

https://m.facebook.com/BeatlesPhotographs/
——

Words cannot express what Jimmy meant to me but I will try. Jimmy was one of my very best friends. In hindsight, maybe the best friend i have ever had.
I first met Jimmy in 2007. He bought an autograph album from me with Jackie Robinson and Mantle along with various other players. I randomly called him to thank him for the purchase and to make sure he was happy. He was taken back and struck up conversation as only Jimmy could do. He asked me if I was a collector. Answer: yes
He asked me why i was selling such a piece then.
Answer: to raise money to buy Type 1 original photos. Do you know what those are? I asked.

Jimmy chuckled and couldn’t believe it. He was one of the only others that collected them the way I visioned my collection going. In fact, he was already at my vision and then some. He purchased the album as flat signatures to go with his established type 1 photos. They were “companion pieces” -jimmy coined this phrase along with many more now regularly used(pre-rookie etc).
Jimmy was way ahead of the curve. He always was. He introduced me to Henry Yee, Graig Kreindler and many more. He was instrumental in the building of my collection. He was a true mentor. We pushed each other for 7-8 years. I call it the type 1 arms race. We wanted to outdo each other.. find new nuggets “under rocks” , find new info on photos, stats etc. We both found such joy collecting together with the goal of building a photo museum.
In fact, it got so competitive that we had a major fall out for a year or so. We were the same in so many ways. Including, recognizing the importance of our friendship so we both got over our ego and vowed never to fight again. We realized that although building world class collections was a “goal” we really did it to enjoy life through collecting and friendships. We were unstoppable after that. We were just ALWAYS on THE SAME page.. except politics and religion. Lol. Which is so hilarious and shows that we all CAN het along.
We decided to look at both our collections as a whole and come up with a “super trade”. I will get his best Ruth’s and he will get my best Gehrig’s. We would each focus on one player. The price points had to be close of course but it is amazing how little we thought about THE TRADE of all photo TRADES. We just did it. It was prob a 100-150k trade. We just did it for fun.. as friends. Trusting each other.
After the trade, Jimmy decided to transition to his first Love, beatles. His second collecting love was gehrig. He built the greatest collection of gehrig photos ever established. It was documented in an article in Sports collectors daily shown earlier in the thread. In fact, both the photos in his hands are now in my collection. He decided.. what else can i do with this? At that time, jimmy recognized that beatles was untapped and he realized, although he could always add to his gehrig collection in numbers, it was strong enough at its current state. To add would cost a lot of money and unnecessary(complete as is). He always said.. quality vs quantity is the key.
We talked about it and he wanted me to have his best Gehrigs(some i traded him). So we figured out a deal where we could keep the best of the best “in the family” and he could use them to fund his next quest(THE ULTIMATE BEATLES COLLECTION). In a short time, he did just that.
Jimmy’s passion was unmatched. He was so well read.. his research was also second to non(Kreindler maybe). But if Jimmy was interested in something, no one knew more than him in any room. He was so generous with the info he gained as well. Too generous sometimes. I think, like anything in life these days, he was taken advantage of a bit. He would never forget being wronged but ferociously loyal to his best friends. He had the biggest heart and gave it to those who deserved it. He built up his friends. Reinforced our best attributes and just made us feel good.
In the past month, we spoke about our relationship.. our collections. How we helped each other build what we currently had. We dreamed of having an exhibit together.. Ruth/gehrig and beatles exhibit. Although we knew it was silly or just a a dream, it was so fun to talk about. I spoke to him Saturday and he was so excited. He added Two holy grail pieces the last couple weeks and was not able to enjoy them sadly but still had the trill of adding to his collection( ticket stub and record player).
In jimmy’s passing.. my collection means more to me now.. certain pieces for sure. I look at it as “our collection”. We built it together.
There is not one other person that can fill what jimmy provided me. He would be brutally honest with me ALWAYS and ALWAYS had my back. He would never judge.. there was NEVER and alternative motive to his advice. He cared and truly loved me as a brother. He told be countless times he was blessed to have a handful of real friends. Although i agreed with him, i never knew what he truly meant. Now I do. He is irreplaceable to me. I loved him for so many reasons. He was a true brother and perhaps my truest friend I have ever had or will ever have.

I didn’t want this to be thought out so i just wrote it raw(edit free-yeah you know me ) I hope I did you justice Jimmy. I love you buddy and happy you are pain free in paradise with your dear Mom. Maybe you are even able to share some time with the Babe, Lou, John and George on the flip side as well.

Your friend,

-The Dude-