How to find the commons.

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by Vintage Vern

I'm trying to keep all my items in our small town, but not sure we can build and house all that is needed. I come from a small town that is part of a larger county, and I do have another option with a historical society in a larger city. I just want to give our small town the first shot. Some items have already left for the larger viewing. I just don't think it has the same meaning. Adrian "Cap" Anson is the king there. Many of the items I was given from Jerry before he passed were discussed and he was OK with both options. I'm also going to try to get an article in the local paper digging back into the 40s and 50s for the Clemons 9 baseball team and in the pre 1920s and early 1920s for Verne. I want to get in touch with as many families as I can before I start with that project. Both to get permission and storied facts and see if they have anything to offer of their family member they'd like to group together for people to view. The paper had an archive we can pull from as well. None of what I'm doing is for personal or monetary gain. It's not just me, but a group effort. We just lost one of the last town elders, and she had vast knowledge from the 30s forward. We have one last older gent that is also donating lots of historical items. There's great pride in these small dying towns. Have you ever eaten at a DQ aka Dairy Queen? The co-founder was from here originally. Dick "Sherb" Noble. This town has had a lot of people that did great things for its size.

You're a collector of baseball, I'm a so called "collector" of this towns history which happens to include some baseball talents. I'm preserving not collecting.

Since preserving history is your higher stated goal, why not focus on writing a book about the town? You're already doing a ton of research, talking to elderly people who have priceless historical insight to the town. There are many, many more facets to Clemons than just the 3 baseball personalities you mention. There's their history, yes, but that could be expanded greatly in your book. Pictures of the houses where these men grew up, biographies of them, and other members of the town's baseball team (including rosters of the team through the years, maybe some accounts of games, and so on.)

What would preserve history better - giving that community a well-researched, multi-faceted history gleaned from the recollections of elderly residents, photos of the town, its building and residents through the decades, or a few baseball cards, which, to the average person, are simply small pictures?

You mention an article you're looking for. When you find stuff like that, include it in your book for long-term preservation, for all to see and read. You could also search articles in other newspapers that have accounts of games played when the Clemons team visited their town.

Before I retired, I was a business analyst, and the first and most important thing was to examine and clarify requirements before thinking about implementation solutions. It seems to me your requirement - your passion - is to preserve the history of Clemons. You clearly understand that time is of the essence, because people with invaluable recollections and insights are steadily disappearing. However, you have, in my opinion, made the common mistake of leaping to an implementation solution (collecting a small handful of obscure baseball cards.) If you go back to the core requirement, you may find that general research might be far more valuable than, for example, replacing a card that has a crease and missing paper on the back, with a nicer copy.

If you're familiar with Larry Ritter's book, The Glory of Their Times, you know about his method, which was to interview elderly players while recording the conversations (with their permissions of course.) You could do that, with veteran farmers, policemen, firemen, grocery store owners, mayors, etc.

I've collected cards for basically my entire life and I can tell you honestly, if someone had a T206 Wagner on display 30 minutes from me, I wouldn't bother to see it. Why? For me, seeing a picture of it would suffice. Put photos of the cards you seek in your book and that will satisfy the great majority of people interested in the subject of the town of Clemons.

You could have a ton of fun with such a project instead of being frustrated with your elusive pursuit of scarce pieces of cardboard. You could accomplish far, far more in terms of historical preservation across all areas of life, with a nice focus on the town baseball team, if that's your main passion. Instead of searching in vain for someone who will sell you that 1953 minor league card, seek out an advanced collector who might provide you with a high resolution scan of it.

Your book, self-published probably, would be available to all, and forever into the future. Unlike a handful of cards, which will end up somewhere, at best in some obscure display with little context.

You obviously are a very skilled writer. You have a deep passion. Preserving history really matters to you. My humble suggestion is, re-examine your core requirement, re-define you implementation strategy, and proceed to document the full history of the town of Clemons.

[Vintage Vern]

Originally Posted by Mark17

Since preserving history is your higher stated goal, why not focus on writing a book about the town? You're already doing a ton of research, talking to elderly people who have priceless historical insight to the town. There are many, many more facets to Clemons than just the 3 baseball personalities you mention. There's their history, yes, but that could be expanded greatly in your book. Pictures of the houses where these men grew up, biographies of them, and other members of the town's baseball team (including rosters of the team through the years, maybe some accounts of games, and so on.)

What would preserve history better - giving that community a well-researched, multi-faceted history gleaned from the recollections of elderly residents, photos of the town, its building and residents through the decades, or a few baseball cards, which, to the average person, are simply small pictures?

You mention an article you're looking for. When you find stuff like that, include it in your book for long-term preservation, for all to see and read. You could also search articles in other newspapers that have accounts of games played when the Clemons team visited their town.

Before I retired, I was a business analyst, and the first and most important thing was to examine and clarify requirements before thinking about implementation solutions. It seems to me your requirement - your passion - is to preserve the history of Clemons. You clearly understand that time is of the essence, because people with invaluable recollections and insights are steadily disappearing. However, you have, in my opinion, made the common mistake of leaping to an implementation solution (collecting a small handful of obscure baseball cards.) If you go back to the core requirement, you may find that general research might be far more valuable than, for example, replacing a card that has a crease and missing paper on the back, with a nicer copy.

If you're familiar with Larry Ritter's book, The Glory of Their Times, you know about his method, which was to interview elderly players while recording the conversations (with their permissions of course.) You could do that, with veteran farmers, policemen, firemen, grocery store owners, mayors, etc.

I've collected cards for basically my entire life and I can tell you honestly, if someone had a T206 Wagner on display 30 minutes from me, I wouldn't bother to see it. Why? For me, seeing a picture of it would suffice. Put photos of the cards you seek in your book and that will satisfy the great majority of people interested in the subject of the town of Clemons.

You could have a ton of fun with such a project instead of being frustrated with your elusive pursuit of scarce pieces of cardboard. You could accomplish far, far more in terms of historical preservation across all areas of life, with a nice focus on the town baseball team, if that's your main passion. Instead of searching in vain for someone who will sell you that 1953 minor league card, seek out an advanced collector who might provide you with a high resolution scan of it.

Your book, self-published probably, would be available to all, and forever into the future. Unlike a handful of cards, which will end up somewhere, at best in some obscure display with little context.

You obviously are a very skilled writer. You have a deep passion. Preserving history really matters to you. My humble suggestion is, re-examine your core requirement, re-define you implementation strategy, and proceed to document the full history of the town of Clemons.

Thanks for this.

The great thing about it is many of the elders already documented much of the towns history. My biggest regret is to not have recorded many of our conversations before their passing. I do know one of the main contributors was my elderly neighbor who passed away last year at the age of 98. She was sharp as a tack, and was a huge source of information. Not only about Clemons, but her family history and the history of life in general. It will be hard not seeing her out gardening this spring. Much of what you suggested has been written about. I know her copy of Clemons history has many hand written updates since 1982.

Screenshot_20250202_203100_eBay.jpg

[Vintage Vern]

I'll also include a Jerry Mehlisch interview. He has also since passed away last year at age 92. I have multiple hand written letters from multiple people, but I will not show them here for various reasons. This is something his wife Shari won't mind. Jerry actually was born in the same small town of Liberty township (as did my Grandmother) just a few miles outside of Clemons.

https://youtu.be/uarIlNclWPw?si=syD8i5maCKKLdYwV

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by Vintage Vern

Here's the truth. Most people don't care about the players they collect. They care about completing a set. It doesn't matter who's in it.

You're wrong. That may have been the truth fifty years ago, but these days it appears that the majority of card collectors are not set builders. Collectors these days generally have a more narrow focus for two reasons:

1) There's an incredible amount of different cards out there. Even traditional Topps Baseball sets average out to over 700 different cards.

2) The price of cards these days makes collecting all the cards in a set extremely expensive.