Interesting baseball memorabilia article in the Washington Post

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Posted By: Bruce MacPherson

The Washington Post Magazine had an interesting (but long) article this weekend about some historic baseballs that were stolen from the hall of fame. The article was written by Walter Johnson's Grandson: Henry Thomas. He also wrote a great book called "Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train" that is recommended reading for any Senators/vintage baseball fan.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46884-2004Oct20.html

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Posted By: Anonymous

Another good reason to collect, preserve, and never, ever donate anything to a museum.

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Posted By: Max Weder

Perhaps even scarier is what sort of title collectors acquire in the US if they unknowingly purchaser stolen baseball cards or memorabilia.

In Canada, you can't acquire legal title in these circumstances; the victim of the theft would recover the stolen property and your only claim would be to seek recovery from the person who sold you the property and/or the actual thief. Is this the case in the US?

Scary thoughts when buying an expensive card or autographed ball.

Max

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Posted By: Bruce MacPherson

I apologize for the link as I didn't know that the Washington Post now makes you register to view their articles.

To Paraphrase; The tradition in Washington (when a baseball team was in existance) it was common for the current President to throw out the first pitch on opening day. Dring the early teens and twenties, obviously Walter Johnson was on the mound and he would keep the ball and have it autographed by the president. Signed opening day balls by Wilson, Hoover, Coolidge, Harding and Taft were donated to the Hall of fame by one of Water Johnson's sons. They were stolen from the Hall in 1972. Two were obtained by Alan Rosen. A few of the balls later showed up in a Ron Oser and a Mastronet auction. Obviously, none of the above knew the balls had been stolen from the Hall of Fame. In the end the signed balls made it back to the Hall (with the help of the FBI). But some collectors definately lost some serious money during this ordeal.

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Posted By: hankron

I beleive the buyer gets the refund from the person who sold it to him, who gets the refund from the person who stole it from him, who ....

I beleive the phrase is, "Keep you receipt."

Beyond evidence of authenticity, one reason why documented provenance is used in the high end fine arts is to prove the work is not stolen. It's similar to when you buy a million dollar house and have paperwork proving that the person you are paying a million bucks actually is the house's owner.

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Posted By: Morrie

First, thanks for the link to the article. It was a great read.

Second, if anyone's not aware of it, there's a great website:

www.bugmenot.com

Go there, type in the url for the site that requires annoying registration, and it will give you a login that someone else registered and then submitted. It doesn't do it for sites that actually charge you (I don't think), it's just a way around the annoying registration requirements that do nothing but collect your email address to spam you.

Morrie

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Posted By: Cy

Henry Thomas is a wonderful guy. He's great to talk with and knows a lot about Walter Johnson and the Washington Senators. He is also the person who approached Larry Ritter to get the tapes of the Glory of Their Times. Henry is the producer of these tapes/CDs which, IMHO, are the finest in sports audio/video around. I have the 10-CD Ken Burns' Baseball. I have the 3-CD When It Was a Game. Neither of these are as good as the Glory Of Their Times CDs. Larry Ritter gets the ultimate credit for this. But if it wasn't for Henry, these tapes would have been thrown away.

Cy