My dad and I spent 3 days up in Brimfield Mass a couple of weeks ago, and had a great time - this was our second trip up there. We got in on Wednesday shortly after the Heritans field opened, and stayed until Friday after we made our way through the J&J field. Rained alot, with an especially muddy, rainy day on Thursday, but it was still fun getting out there and hunting for early sports relics. I meant to post this when we got back into town but I just now got around to snapping some photos.
It was a pretty good sign for our trip, when the third booth at Heritans after just arriving in Brimfield, we spot a pretty early melon shaped football. Actually we didn't find it - I had scoured the booth finding nothing, then my dad asked do you have any sports - and the guy pulls the football out from underneath 3 quilts. I am definitely glad my dad asked. Later in the day at the New England Motel we picked up a large neat group of late 1940's boxing items including a silk boxing Everlast robe with Lowell Sun Golden Gloves on back with matching shorts, a nice pair of AAU Davega boxing globes, about 10 small golden gloves awards, and assorted programs and ephemera. Lastly the first day we picked up 3 early baseballs, and indoor baseball, and a small LAW Cycling tobacco tin. One of the baseballs is especially neat - it is a Spalding Official National League ball stamped all over P.I.C.O - which stands for Parkesburg Iron Company - their company team was a powerhouse in the Philadelphia area around 1920 and actually played alot of Major League teams in exhibition games.
The second day it was especially muddy, but we came across some neat items at the Mays field. First we picked up an outstanding large panoramic photograph which shows the starting lineups of the 1920 US Marines football team and the Great Lakes Naval Training Station team. The previous 2 years, the Great Lakes team was a powerhouse - George Halas was stationed there and organized the team, and also playing for them were HOFers Jimmy Conzelman and Paddy Driscoll. At Mays we also picked up a Draper & Maynard Dog Ear style helmet and a trio of early pennants.
The final day at J&J we picked up 3 bats, 2 of which are pretty early. The first bat is a 38 inch or so, very light straight tapered bat. The next bat is a little shorter, straight tapered flat ended bat. I think both are from about the 1870's time frame. The last bat was a Kren's Waner Style. Also at J&J I picked up an 1888 silk ribbon for a baseball game between the Elks and RedMen.
We also picked up a tintype at an antique shop in the are of a man in a bib front uniform - hard to tell if he's a baseball player or fireman, but it was cheap enough.
Overall it was a fun trip, and got alot more exercise I would have if I would have sat home at my desk scouring eBay. Any other net54ers hit Brimfield?
