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Self quarantine, and Stay-at-home
orders to win the war against the
Coronavirus pandemic, leads us into
battle with cabin fever. Staying
informed on the latest news is
essential, but you will become stir
crazy if you dwell on it all day.
Keeping busy with in-home family
activities, and giving each other
personal space are both important. Take
advantage of this added time at home to
enjoy and share your baseball
memorabilia.
Break out your vintage baseball board
games and play it with your children or
significant other. Yes, we bought them
to be displayed in our collection, but
lets face it, these games were made be
played with and enjoyed.
Endorsed by
Chuck Dressen & Casey Stengel,
Pro-Base
Ball "The Great American Game" can be
played by 1-9 persons represented on
each team. Timeless 1946 fun in 2020.
With Baseball Shut down indefinitely, we could pass the time with a good old fashion
game of Monopoly. In 1999 Parker
Brothers issued the Major League
edition of Monopoly. Team editions that
included the Red Sox, and Dodgers would
follow; along with special World
Champion editions, My Fantasy baseball
players Edition, and this
2001 Yankees
Collectors Edition. |
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The Monopoly brand created a
special edition that commemorates the
Bronx Bombers, the Century's greatest
team. The game board features the same
setup as the classic Monopoly game but
with a Yankee theme twist.
Community Chest & Chance cards are
replaced with Yankee Home and Away
jersey cards, that feature Mr. Monopoly
involved with baseball activities.
Yankee blue dice are used to move the
six pewter game tokens; a Yankees logo
baseball cap, baseball glove & ball,
catchers mask, pennant, hot dog, and a
pitcher.
New York Yankee Monopoly money is used
to purchase property and pay the rent.
Houses and Hotels are replaced with
Luxury Boxes and Ballparks. Property
Cards include Yankee minor league teams,
Yankee Stadium, Monument Park, and the
classic Railroad properties are
replaced with the four bases.
Player property cards feature Yankee
greats such as; Babe Ruth, Reggie
Jackson, Thurman Munson, Don Mattingly,
and manager Casey Stengel. 77WABC
Radio, and the MSG Television Network
become the Utilities
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Interruption from our daily
routine, and extended stay-at-home time
affords us the opportunity to 'play'
with our collections. Positive activity
is the greatest weapon we have to
counter-attack the cabin fever army.
Start-up a long overdue project that
you never had time for. Organize,
display, or clean your collection.
Cleaning and conditioning your
collectible baseball glove or mitt,
will help bring the leather back to
life, make a better display, and add
value. This is a popular discussion
among novice and seasoned glove
collectors. The opinions will vary from
one collector to another on preferred
methods and which products to use. My
advice is not to take on a project that
is well above your experience.
The same goes for baseball bats. Don't
take on a project, that you have little
or no experience with. Cleaning and
oiling your collectable baseball bats
will do no harm, as long as there are
no decals involved. Leave game used
bats alone.
After your bat is clean and dust free,
apply a coat of lemon oil. Treat the
bat as you would a piece of furniture.
Start with inexpensive bats until you
gain experience. Some collectors then
add Beeswax Polish using a cotton
cloth, rubbing it into the wood in the
direction of the grain, let it sit for
3-4 minutes, then buff the surface of
the bat with a cloth to restore the
luster of the wood.
 Joining a collectors forum or facebook group is a great battle tactic
against cabin fever. You could interact
with other collectors and still uphold
social distancing requirements. There
are many experienced collectors that
would be more than happy to help with
any project you decide to take on. A
forum such as
Net 54 is a great option for
those that "Don't do facebook" but you
can join facebook without entering
personal information.
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You don't even need to use your real
name, or make friends with people that
might turn your facebook experience into a
personal soap-opera. Just stick to the
collectors groups you join such as the
KeyMan Collectibles Baseball
Memorabilia Group. Post
Questions and comments relating to
Baseball Collectibles and Memorabilia.
Learn or share knowledge about baseball
memorabilia. Show-off your collection,
check out other collections and get new
ideas for display. (I will leave a list
in the left column for recommended
groups)
Down time can be used to display your
memorabilia or take pictures of it.
Half the fun of collecting is showing
it off to others. Send KeyMan pictures
of your Memorabilia Display, and get
your own Collectors Showcase Room! "The
Room" is hosted by KeyMan Collectibles
and will feature your personal
collection. Just send pictures and a
brief collectors profile, and KeyMan
will do the rest. No personal
information will be posted or needed.
No collection too small.
Check it out here.
Another indoor activity that you might
enjoy is listening to collectible
records that are in your collection. In
1962 Columbia Record productions
released a test issue set of 8 premium
Auravision paper disc records. The
transparent flexi record was laminated
over a paper picture of a ballplayer.
In
1964 Columbia produced a 16 record set
featuring baseball stars of the
day. These and other records featuring
our childhood heroes can be heard on
YouTube. Most can be found with a
simple search. YouTuber, Cards From The
Attic, features
recordings of the entire Sports
Champions Auravisions set.
"Let's Keep The Dodgers In Brooklyn"
was recorded by Phil Foster on Coral
Records. The 1957 song was written as a
futile plea to keep the Dodgers in
Brooklyn.
Foster, is best known for his roll as
Frank DeFazio, Laverne’s
pizzeria-owning father, on the hit TV
show “Laverne and Shirley.” With
the words sung in Brooklynese,
you can listen to the recording on YouTube
here. You can also
listen to Phil Foster -
"A Brooklyn
Baseball Fan"45 RPM Record
Most of us have books in our collection. Reading a good book about our
national pastime, to pass-the-time,
could help fill the void of the MLB
coronavirus shutdown. For many people
reading about the sport, or about
player heroes, is the next best thing
to being there.
Gilbert Patten, who wrote under the
pseudonym Burt L. Standish wrote
hundreds of "Medal Library" Dime Novels
published by Street & Smith featuring
the Merriwell's. Street & Smith also
published
'Tip Top Weekly,' a magazine
promoted as "An Ideal Publication for
The American Youth," featuring short
stories about the sporting adventures
of fictional characters Dick and Frank
Merriwell.
Baseball books were published from as far back as the 1880s. However,
these were mostly manuals of rules and
are rare today. While there were some
popular novels beginning around 1900,
these were available mostly in
high-priced hard cover editions, and
later beginning in the 20s in cheaper
hardcover reprints. Nevertheless, even
cheap hardcover reprints were often too
expensive for most working class fans,
and too big and heavy to carry around
comfortably.
There were a plethora of cheap paper
books at the time, called "dime novels"
and some included novels of baseball
fiction, usually only boy’s adventure
novels. These were often only available
by mail order, through subscriptions
like magazines.
They were not sold in stores.
Distribution was a problem. Making the
books easily available to readers in
handy and inexpensive editions was what
was needed. This would soon begin when
the
pulp and paperback eras began.
Dozens and dozens of books have been
written about the New York Yankees.
Written by Dan Busby,
"Before and After Babe Ruth" is different than any book
previously written about the Yankees
because it thoroughly documents the
tickets and passes used by the team
from 1903 (the year the franchise
joined the American League) to 1951
(Mantle s rookie year).
There are many
photos and images of other Yankee
memorabilia with the narrative of the
Yankees history artfully woven
together. But it is the preservation of
the images of the tickets and the
passes together with the association of
undated ticket with the year they were
used that makes this book standout from
other Yankee books.
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