I'm very sad to report that a good friend of mine Dan Busby passed away on Wednesday.
I've known Dan personally for about 30 years.
Dan was truly a passionate baseball ticket collector.
His major ticket collecting focuses included Opening Day tickets, post-season tickets and early vintage baseball tickets for all teams.
Even though I never had a chance to see his collection in its entirety, it was massive and one of a kind.
The team that he favored the most was the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Dan was also an author of two ticket collecting hardback books that really are outstanding.
His first book, largely focused on Yankees tickets was entitled
Before and After Babe Ruth.
He literally just released his second book which is entitled
Before and After Jackie Robinson.
This book is a large hardback tabletop edition and is focused on the tickets and history of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
For those of you that are interested, it is now available on Amazon.
Dan passed in his 80's, so he had a full and rich life. He was an excellent religious lobbyist in Washington DC until only a few years ago.
Knowing him for many years and realizing that the ticket collecting world would benefit from his expertise, I encouraged him to write about ticket collecting. Perhaps 10-12 years ago, he flew into DET and I had dinner with him in Ann Arbor to discuss the possibility of collaborating on a book on vintage ticket collecting.
When I learned that he was a published author on other unrelated topics, I assumed the role of providing photos of some rare tickets that were featured in some of his book concepts and agreed to help review early drafts.
One time I asked him how he got started collecting tickets as a hobby.
He told me that he actually started collecting programs. In the 1960's he visited hobby pioneer Goldy Goldfaden's shop on Ventura Blvd. in the Valley (Los Angeles).
Dan bought an early All Star program that had a ticket stuck inside the pages.
It dawned on him that tickets were an interesting thing to collect and the rest is history...
Here is a picture of Dan at the 2018 Ticket Collector dinner at The National in CLE. Dan is the guy standing to my left in the photo and I am wearing the Ryan Angels T-Shirt and red hat.
RIP Dan, you will be missed, my friend!
