Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
For baseball hobbyists, a legacy of a season to forget
For not a dollar less than $492,000 last week, a 110-year-old baseball card featuring Shoeless Joe Jackson was sold at an auction.
Back when there used to be baseball, there used to be memories.
Back when there used to be memories, there was memorabilia.
There is no more baseball, and the more people tolerate that, the more possible it becomes that 110 years from now there will not be one baseball item from 2020 of value or interest. Not a card, not a bobblehead, not a game-worn shirt with a grass stain at no extra charge. Say it ain’t so. “If some day you have a Bryce Harper 2020 shirt, even if there were just five games, then you have a valuable shirt,” said Ted Taylor, long the Philadelphia area’s foremost sports collector. “But if they don’t play any games, then you have a 2020 shirt where everybody knows, ‘Well, that was just worn in spring training.’
“So it’s different, even if it’s the same darn shirt.”
A collector, a memorabilia analyst, an historian, sports writer and former athletic director at Philadelphia Textile, Taylor has been monitoring the flow, or lack of one, of 2020 baseball collectibles. He knows that a small supply of cards was released early, but wonders if, as usual, complete season sets will drop around July. Such is another twist in the mystery of a baseball season that screeched right past Mother’s Day without a single unnecessary pitching change.
“It’s funny,” said Carl Henderson of Carl’s Collectibles in Havertown. “People have asked me if 2020 cards are going to be worth anything because of the season or because of no season. With baseball cards, it is a very finicky, very fragile kind of thing. It’s all based on what the player does that season.
“I know that the companies aren’t printing very much right now because everything is shut down. The cards are tough to get. Very much so. It’s a supply and demand kind of thing. Maybe the 2020 stuff goes through the roof because, if they do end up canceling the season, there becomes a big demand for everything that was out on the market.”
As baseball’s return is delayed, many could be hurt, from the players to the broadcasters to the groundskeepers to the mascots. But don’t undervalue the impact the collectors have on preserving not just the history of the game, but its continued popularity.
Annually, Taylor purchases a set of cards for his grandson, Brett, 9, convinced that if well preserved they will climb in value over the next three decades. But the 2019 set is one thing, for the players played. What kind of value will a set of 2020 cards have in 2050 if there wasn’t a single walk-off shavingcream pie-in-the-face?
“As time goes on, it may be a very quirky set,” Taylor suggested. “Because how many of them will there be? Nobody knows. It’s always supply and demand. How many are they going to print?”
Game-used equipment and classic cards should always hold appeal to the high-end collector. But the market for replica jerseys, whether to be worn to the ballpark or purchased to be autographed, has all but vanished.
“Oh yeah,” said John Hall, a partner at the Clothes Quarters in Folsom, an apparel store offering replica jerseys. “We’re down to nothing, really.”
Clothes Quarters has been approved to do business because it provides uniforms and apparel for essential medical personnel. But while there are racks of Phillies shirts available, they have virtually remained untouched since the virus lockdown in March.
“A large part of our business was for home games,” Hall said. “People will come in to buy jerseys, hats, T-shirts to get signed. So that’s obviously something we would have been getting. It’s not a big part of our business. But it’s part of it.”
No baseball. No autographs. No reason for fans to buy merchandise to have signed. No signed merchandise to preserve, perhaps to increase in value. Fewer baseball cards. No ballpark giveaways. Gameused uniforms that aren’t.
Such is the gurgling drain on a hobby that has become an industry.
“This year,” Taylor said, “will be a very strange year.”
Hobbies, industries, commodities and tastes are never easy to predict. There is even a chance that a season without baseball could generate nostalgia for a time when there was baseball. If so, collectors could realize a spiking interest in their products.
“It could happen,” Henderson said. “The people are ready for something. Look at it now. We’re clamoring for something to watch on television. How many times can we watch the Phillies’ ‘08 championship game?”
The amusement of watching old games will quickly diminish. But a summer without baseball might create a demand for items from some memorable season of the distant past.
“I just bought a 1950 Phillies pennant with all the player names and numbers on it,” Taylor said. “I spent 125 bucks for a pennant that probably went for a couple of bucks at the ballpark. That kind of stuff will continue to sell, because nothing is changing with the older stuff.
“But it is a smaller segment of the hobby,” he added. “You’ve got to have a few bucks to play in that league.”
For 492 large, a fan thirsty for baseball could play in the Shoeless Joe Jackson-card league.
“It’s a very fascinating business,” Carl Henderson said. “I’ve been in it for 30 years now. Nothing surprises me.”
As for that 31st year, that looks like it could have a chance.
Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@21stcenturymedia.com; you can follow him on Twitter @JackMcCaffery