MLB – Yahoo! Sports
July 28, 2008

“OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA (TICKER) —Oakland Athletics rookie righthander Brad Ziegler made history on Sunday.

Ziegler worked two innings against the Texas Rangers to establish a modern major league record for consecutive scoreless innings (27) to begin a career. He broke the previous mark of 25 innings established by George McQuillan of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1907.”

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July 13, 2008
NY1

“Just in time for next week’s All-Star game at Yankee Stadium, some rare pieces of baseball history are on the auction block.

Hunt Auctions is offering 900 items, most of them Yankee-related, including the ball Babe Ruth hit for his 712th homerun. It’s expected to fetch between $100,000 and $200,000.

The warm-up jacket Lou Gehrig wore on the day his consecutive game streak ended is also available, with a presale estimate of $250,000.

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By Carol Karm
Sunday, July 13, 2008

“A newly discovered stash of rare sports memorabilia fell into Patrick McMinn’s lap this year.

The Thousand Oaks resident and marketing company owner is the primary organizer for the coming 4th Annual CytRx Strike Out Lou Gehrig’s Disease All Star Invitational Tournament, which will be held Thursday through Sunday.

…The items include a baseball signed by the original 11 members of the 500 Home Run Club: Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, Mike Schmidt, Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey, Reggie Jackson and Ernie Banks.

There are many mint-condition baseball cards, such as a Babe Ruth Commemorative with a 1932 Yankee World Series team photo, and a Lou Gehrig Commemorative with a 1937 Yankee World Series team photo.

The signed items include a Sandy Koufax autographed baseball with a 1984 limited edition Koufax Commemorative Plate, and a Pete Rose autographed ball with card.”

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Visit the website at http://www.alsbaseball.org

BY JOHN JEANSONNE
Newsday.com
April 24, 2008

“For $157,000, a complete set of 1915 Cracker Jack baseball cards went to the man in the navy blue T-shirt and baseball cap near the back of the room.

…The card set was one of 203 lots of sports memorabilia put up for bid Thursday by Sotheby’s, partnering with the sports memorabilia firm SCP Auctions, in a demonstration that “we love sports,” said auctioneer Leila Dunbar. The three-hour session brought in $2,518,130.

…Of all the business Sotheby’s does, sports has “the greatest number of collectors and the steadiest appreciation.”"

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Some of the other prices mentioned:
- Shoeless Joe Jackson’s “Black Betsy” bat, circa 1920: $301,000
- Darryl Strawberry’s 1998 Yankee World Series ring: $55,000
- Mel Ott 30th home baseball: $53,000
- Joe Frazier’s robe from the weigh-in of “The Fight of the Century,” Frazier vs. Ali, March 8, 1971: $20,000

In Cyberspace, anyone can buy into the hottest scandal

BostonHerald.com
By Tony Massarotti
Sunday, April 6, 2008

“Americans love a scandal, particularly if they can own a piece of it. As such, maybe it is no surprise that some such items – memorabilia featuring the signatures of both Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee – are among the hottest properties on the Internet.”

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baltimoresun.com
By Kevin Cowherd | Sun reporter
March 29, 2008

“For collectors of Orioles memorabilia, these are tough times.

…And at Arena Sports Cards and Games in Eldersburg, owner Dave Palasek laments that the famous Topps baseball card company, in its new Baseball Card History series, features 50 current well-known players “and not one Baltimore Oriole.”

“No one on the team has any national appeal,” he says. “You gotta have national appeal for collectors to care about you.”

Financial News – Yahoo! Finance
Thursday January 17, 2008

“Talk about bad timing. When Mastro Auctions, the country’s largest auction house for rare, vintage sports memorabilia, decided to set the date of its recent auction for December 12-15, no one could have known that the Mitchell Report, listing 89 major league players accused of using performance-enhancing drugs, would be released smack in the middle.

What was a seismic announcement for the sports world had aftershocks in the memorabilia market – immediately. At the auction, prices for the memorabilia from two of the players named in the report, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, were dramatically lower than had been expected.”

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The Official KFVS12 and Heartland News Web Site
Jan 7, 2008
By: Holly Brantley

“CARTERVILLE, Ill. – One 1987 Topps Card is the only thing we could find with Roger Clemens name on it at the Baseball Card and Sports Memorabilia Show at John A. Logan College.

Part of that has to do with the fact that we’re in Cardinal and Cubs country here in the Heartland. The other has to do with the recent Mitchell Report, suggesting Clemens and others may have used performance enhancing drugs.

…Overall, cards of players who have been implicated are down 30 to 50 percent, dealers estimate. But, Fox says it’s hard to tell how long that will last.”

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WRAL.com
Dec. 14, 2007

“The cloud of steroids-abuse allegations surrounding Major League Baseball after Thursday’s long-awaited, much anticipated Mitchell Report is already having a negative impact on dozens of people in the Triangle.

…They said Friday that the steroids controversy is hurting the values of collectibles of the players involved.”

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Yahoo! Finance
Wednesday November 28, 2007

“TUSTIN, Calif., Nov. 28 /PRNewswire/ — A one-of-a-kind piece of baseball history could set a new standard for values of the sport’s most historic documents on Dec. 8, when the rookie-year baseball contract of Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson is sold by Memory Lane Inc., of Tustin, Calif. The company is considered one of the premier sports collectible auctions houses in the country.

Mathewson is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time and was one of the five original inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936.

Vintage baseball contracts have become more sought after in recent years by collectors, and that demand has resulted in escalating values for the items. The record for player-signed contracts is the $996,000 price realized for Babe Ruth’s 1919 rookie-year contract, which sold in June of 2005. Collectors will be watching the sale of this Mathewson contract closely to see where it ranks among the highest-priced contracts sold to date.”

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