Clete Boyer’s 1st Cut

For years Clete Boyer lived in Cooperstown and would sign autographs while tourists visted the Baseball Hall of Fame.  The first time I visited Cooperstown was in 2003 and this 2x World Series Champ and 1969 Gold Glove Award winner was signing a bunch of autographs for collectors.  This Yankees great was sitting inside one of the local card shops just signing away and when I met him he autographed one of his business cards.  At the time Boyer owned a restaurant called “Clete Boyer’s Hamburger Hall of Fame”.  After a few years in business, Boyer’s restaurant has turned into something else.  If anyone has been to Cooperstown during the early 2000’s, I’m sure you saw Clete Boyer too.

Boyer only has a handful of autographed cards and only one relic.  This year Upper Deck produced his first cut signature which can be found in ’09 SP Legendary Cuts and is numbered to only 42 copies.  It shouldn’t be hard to find one for under $50.00.  Boyer passed away in June of 2007, and was the first pro athlete to have is ashes stored in one of the new MLB licensed Eternal Image Yankees urns.

My bat has a lot more signatures on it now, but I still prefer this autograph versus the cut.

Contest Winner!!!

The winner of Sports Card Info’s latest contest is Alan.  He wins a 34″ Cooperstown Bat Company bat.  Thanks to everyone that entered and be sure to look for more contests in the future.

Here are the people that made it into the top 10:

Cooperstown Bat Mailday

A few moments ago the UPS guy dropped off a package from Cooperstown, NY containing a new baseball bat for my collection.  One of my favorite things I like to collect are autographs on bats whenever I attend a show.  This is something that I have been doing since 2003 which started with Greg Luzinski.  As of today my room has 9 baseball bats, some with signatures and others commemorating something or are replicas.  Nobody would dare try to steal anything from my collection without getting bashed in the head 🙂  The bat I received today is probably one of my favorites.  I ordered it from The Cooperstown Bat Company where I have purchased many bats before.  This one has my blog’s name on it “Sports Card Info”.  I actually received my bat on Monday, but they misspelled the title forgetting the “s” in “Sports”.  I contacted them Tuesday morning and they sent out a corrected bat right away for FREE.  The Cooperstown Bat Company has excellent customer service.  It looks extremely nice engraved into the wood.  I can’t wait to get some autographs on it.

 

 

 

 

Schlotzsky’s Mailday!

The other day I received a wooden bat holder in the mail from The Cooperstown Bat Company and at first I had no clue why it was sent to me.  Then it all started to come together.  About a week ago I was contacted by Matrixx Pictures, which is a marketing firm out in California, and they wanted to know if they could send me something.  Little did I know that was the first part.  Matrixx Pictures is doing a promotional campaign for Schlotzsky’s, which is a restaurant franchise.  Today in the mail I received another package containing three different colored baseball cards.  Once I take a photo of these cards and upload them next week to their website, if I am one of the first 1,000 people I could win a personalized mini-bat.  I thinks that cool!  

When I started Sports Card Info, I never thought I would sponsored by Press Pass and have marketing companies like Matrixx Pictures want me to take part in a massive marketing campaign.  I love cards and blogging 🙂

By the way, you should check out the Schlotzsky’s Big League Club website.  They have a very addicting baseball game you can play for free.

Interesting Mailday

Today when the UPS man knocked on the door, I thought he might be dropping off the next box from Press Pass, but that sure wasn’t the case.  When I looked to see where it was from it said “Cooperstown Bat Company”.  I scratched my head wondering what it could be because I don’t remember ordering anything from them recently.  Opening the box, I find that they sent me a small wooden bat holder that hangs on the wall.  I have no idea why they sent me this.  Has anyone else received anything like this from them?  Inside the box there was no invoice.  In the past, I have purchased four bats from them while visiting Cooperstown and I know they have my address.  Maybe its just a promotional giveaway.  I’m going to send them and e-mail to see if thats the case.    

 

The Ultimate DNA Relic

 

If you thought the George Washington hair cards were strange, take a look at this.  This is suppose to be a piece of skin from Abner Doubleday.  For many years, historians have debated whether Abner Doubleday or Alexander Cartwright invented the game of baseball.  This afternoon I came across this disturbing relic on The Baseball Reliquary.  The caption reads:

“This fragment of skin purportedly from the inner left thigh of Abner Doubleday (1819-1893) was discovered in a refrigerator in the basement of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1948. There is no record that this artifact was ever exhibited at the Hall of Fame; in fact, most professional curators would consider a relic of this nature far too disturbing for public display. All of which brings up the question of why this artifact would have been preserved in the first place. No one at the Hall of Fame seems to have an answer, although modern-day conspiracy theorists would no doubt offer a host of explanations. We do know that the Hall of Fame is based on a fiction, that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in 1839 in Cooperstown, New York. Could the Hall of Fame at one time have intended to exhibit this artifact in tandem with the renowned “Doubleday baseball” to buttress this deception and anoint the Civil War general as a baseball deity?”

There are only a handful of cut signatures made of Doubleday, and absolutely no memorabilia cards.  I bet a few card companies would love to get their hands on this to create the ultimate DNA relic.

Sports Card Info Photo Used In Babe Ruth Article

Earlier this week I received an e-mail from a person who was writing an article for NowPublic.com about Babe Ruth.  They saw the photos from my trip to Cooperstown last August and wanted to know if they could use one of the photos taken at the Babe Ruth exhibit.  I said yes, and now that photo is part of the article.  Its a real interesting article on Ruth and I bet a lot of collectors would enjoy reading it.  You can view the article here.  My picture is in the photo gallery attached to the article.  I’m actually in the picture, near the bottom where it is a little dark.  

Back from Cooperstown!

Cooperstown, NY has to be one of the best towns in the country if you are a baseball fan.  I walked around and looked at every single HOF plaque.  I had no idea that there were so many writers in the Hall of Fame.  While I was there I picked up a “Goose” Gossage 2008 HOF inductee bat that is limited to 500.  That may seem like a lot of baseball bats, but 500 isn’t very many.  I also picked up a bat that is modeled after the type Napoleon Lajoie used.  Right down the street from the HOF there is a wax museum which has about 30 different wax figures on display.  Below are a few pictures that I took.  The rest of the pictures can be found in the Photostream to your right.  Enjoy!!!

1858 baseball

                                                                       2008 HOF inductees

HOF entrance

Plaque room

“Shoeless” Joe Jackson hat, glove, & jersey

1909-11 T206 Honus Wagner

World Series rings & pins

Wax Museum

Mickey Mantle

Wade Boggs

Founders of baseball

Roberto Clemente

Jackie Robinson

Taking a trip

Tomorrow I will be leaving for a few days to take a trip.  I will be heading to Cooperstown, NY.  I wonder what could be there? 🙂  Oh, I wanted to mention that I got a B on the 2008 Allen & Ginter statistics paper I wrote. I also found out that I got a B for the entire coarse as well.  See yah after I get back.  Hopefully nothing major happens in the hobby within the next few days.

Jackie Robinson’s new HOF Plaque

Reading the National Baseball Hall of Fame website today, I see that Jackie Robinson received a new plaque for display.  This plaque tells you about his cultural impact as well as his Major League accomplishments.  I think this will be cool to see since I am going back to Cooperstown near the end of the summer.  His old plaque read, “Leading N.L. batter in 1949. Holds fielding mark for second basemen playing in 150 or more games with .992. Led N.L. in stolen bases in 1947 and 1949. Most Valuable Player in 1949. Lifetime batting average .311. Joint record holder for most double plays by second baseman, 137 in 1951. Led second basemen in double plays 1949-50-51-52.”  Now for you collectors reading this, there is one more thing to ask.  What happens with the old plaque?