It Exists and No One Knows

[BigJJ]

This title is somewhat of a Yogi-ism.

The vast majority of the baseball memorabilia that we know exists is on the public record - auctions, items in museum collections, items in news stories, also additions to personal collections that have been posted here.

It occurred to me that we arguably rarely post about items we do not own, or see for sale. in other words, we do not usually post about items we see in the private collections of others. Now we all know there are many reasons why such a post may not be made. I'm laughing a bit here. But I thought it might be interesting to have a thread dedicated to amazing pieces that we see in others' collections. If collectors are not Net 54 members, the likelihood of our learning about their great pieces, that have been acquired privately, is slim. So by word and/or picture, I thought this thread might provide for a greater public record of items, and expand our knowledge and realm.

Important items in our personal collections that were acquired privately would also qualify.

[ruth-gehrig]

Interesting topic for sure although don't really think I can personally contribute much myself on it.

[Shoeless Moe]

Geddy Lee of Rush has an amazing collection......he shows some of it off on a recent Rush video/dvd.

[springpin]

The Hall of Fame has a stunning 3" mirror, head shot, red background, featuring either Tinker or Evers. I think it is Evers. Beyond wonderful.

[slidekellyslide]

The University of Nebraska's former Sports Information Director, Don "Fox" Bryant I have heard has a tremendous collection of sports memorabilia including a vast array of college football memorabilia (he did tell me he has one of Alabama coach Bear Bryant's famous hats)...he was Nebraska's SID through Nebraska's glory days of the 1970s-90s. Prior to him becoming the UNL SID he wrote for the Lincoln newspaper and had a regular column on the Lincoln Chiefs minor league baseball team...I have seen a few of his items from that collection, but have heard that he has a lot of it. There is another collector here in town who has a lot of Lincoln minor league memorabilia who is not "online" with it also.

They built a history wall at the old Sherman Field when they refurbished it last year and they used a lot of my collection...they also used stuff from the collection of the two guys I mentioned above. There is a baseball that looks like George Sosnak may have painted it and I don't know where that ball resides.

[steve B]

I suppose stuff that's only sort of publicly accessible would count?

Northeastern has the Cy Young statue of course, but when I went they also had a display case in the fieldhouse that was about the 1903 series. It included a few pieces I'm pretty sure are game used. A couple bats, maybe a glove and a ball or two. I don't recall exactly what was there.

The field house is where leftfield was in the Huntington avenue grounds.

The last time I was there in the late 80's the field house was only accessible to people with student IDs.

Steve B

[andypcl]

Hi Paul,
My dad and I went last year. Here's the Evers piece. I assumed it was a button. It really is a beauty!
-Andy

[springpin]

That's it! Not sure why I remembered it as a mirror.

[drcy]

My ex brother-in-law was a since childhood Hollywood posters and non-sport autograph collector, and mailed to be autographed some original 1930s movie lobby cards to a golden era movie star (can't be remember who-- Olivia de Havilland?). The actress said she'd never before seen one of the cards and asked if she could trade for it, to which he agreed. This was before the internet.