What you see: A limited edition monumental bronze statue of Rocky Balboa, commissioned from sculptor A. Thomas Schomberg for the 1982 film Rocky III. SCP Auctions estimates it at $500,000-plus.
Tag Archives: Dan Imler
Base-ball, as it was called in the mid-1800s, was a lawless enterprise. Alcohol, gambling, rudeness, disloyalty and quitting (by players and teams) in the middle of a season, players sitting among the spectators, spectators disrupting play on the field were symptoms of a game that was in many ways considered disgraceful.
On one end of baseball evolution is the supremely talented Mike Trout, and on the other is a couple of pieces of paper from 1857 under lock and key at an auction house in Laguna Niguel. The handwritten “Laws of Base Ball” documents just sold at auction to an anonymous buyer for $3,263,246, prompting SCP Auctions Vice President Dan Imler to predict that baseball will never be the same. That’s a pretty good return on investment for an initial purchase of $12,000. But more on the transaction in a bit.
Modern baseball may have found its birth certificate, and with it a new birth date – and new founding father. Coinciding with the start of the major league season, a set of game-changing documents went up for sale this week. Their authenticity and significance are verified by experts that include John Thorn, Major League Baseball’s official historian.
Modern baseball may have found its birth certificate. And with it a new birth date, and new founding father. Coinciding with the start of the major league season, a set of game-changing documents went up for sale this week. Their authenticity and significance are verified by experts including John Thorn, Major League Baseball’s official historian. The 1857 documents titled “Laws of Base Ball” establish the essentials of the modern game: The distance of the base paths is 90 feet, the length of the game is nine innings and nine players are in the field.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Modern baseball may have found its birth certificate. And with it a new birth date, and new founding father. Coinciding with the start of the major league season, a set of game-changing documents went up for sale this week. Their authenticity and significance are verified by experts including John Thorn, Major League Baseball’s official historian. The 1857 documents titled “Laws of Base Ball” establish the essentials of the modern game: The distance of the base paths is 90 feet, the length of the game is nine innings and nine players are in the field. And they do it three years earlier than the 1860 birth date now recognized.
A 159-year-old document that helped establish the modern rules of baseball will be on the auction block this spring and may bring an historic price. Drafted in New York City during the game’s infancy, the “Laws of Base Ball” outlined the rules and guidelines by which players and clubs would follow when playing in “match games of base ball.” Many of its proposed elemental rules, from setting base paths at 90 feet, to settling on nine players per team, to fixing the duration of the game at nine innings, owe their genesis to the document that was drafted during a convention of New York area baseball clubs in 1857.
When it was auctioned in 1999, a document called “Laws of Base Ball” had no known author but obvious significance. Within its pages were fundamental rules like nine men on a side and 90-foot basepaths. But the “Laws” — and two documents inspired by it — sold for only $12,650 in a Sotheby’s auction devoted to books and manuscripts. Now, the buyer is turning into a seller in an online auction by SCP Auctions that will begin on April 6.
Dan Imler, the vice president of SCP Auctions, may have been destined to specialize in sports memorabilia: He was born into a family of auctioneers and grew up on baseball (a Massachusetts native, he roots for the Red Sox). On Imler’s watch, SCP has handled the April sale of the earliest pair of Michael Jordan game-worn sneakers to come to market ($71,553), the 2007 private sale of a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner baseball card ($2.8 million), and the 2005 auction with Sotheby’s of the original 1935 plaster cast of the Heisman Trophy ($228,000).
He will forever be “Mr. Cub,” the most popular player ever to roam the friendly confines of Chicago’s Wrigley Field. His sunny personality is legend, as is his refrain on a sunny day: “Let’s play two!” The first black player on the Cubs, Banks came up as a shortstop, where he won consecutive MVP awards (1958-59), but actually played more games at first base. Always a fan favorite with the Chicago Cubs during his playing days from 1953 to ’71, Banks even joined the Cubs coaching staff following his retirement. He still holds team records for games played (2,528), at-bats (9,421), extra-base hits (1,009) and total bases (4,706). And now one of his rarest Cubs jerseys is on the auction block at SCP Auctions. The current high bid with 11 days remaining is $44,291.00.
As most advanced flannel collectors know, Banks is considered the third rarest 500 HR Club member jersey behind Mel Ott and Jimmie Foxx in completely original, unaltered condition. Remarkably, it is widely believed that more Babe Ruth jerseys exist than those of Banks. One theory as to their extreme scarcity is that several of the handful of known original Banks jerseys were tragically dismantled by various trading card companies for use on “swatch” cards in recent decades. Among the few surviving original, unaltered Banks jerseys known, the 1969 Cubs home example ranks near the top. Largely unknown to the collecting community it has rested quietly for more than 20 years as the centerpiece to the late Bill Riddell’s esteemed collection in southern California.
“With regard to quality, condition, rarity and provenance, we unabashedly rank this among the finest game worn flannels our firm has ever handled,” said Dan Imler, vice president at SCP Auctions.
Stunningly beautiful, the jersey’s impeccable technical details include a Wilson size 40 tag sewn on the front tail along with a black chain stitched “1969”. Inside the collar is a strip tag reading “14-69-1-40” in chain stitch indicating the jersey number, year of issue, set number and size. The embroidered circular Cubs logo is sewn onto the chest while Banks number “14” is sewn on the reverse in blue tackle twill. A Cubbie Bear patch appears on the left sleeve and its original MLB 100th Anniversary patch remains on the right sleeve. Banks has signed the front of the jersey in large black marker. It is worth noting that among the other known Banks jerseys is a similar 1969 home Set 2 (this is the Set 1). In spite of the Set 2 example having a replaced MLB Anniversary patch it sold at auction in 2012 for $169,000.
Online bidding is open to registered bidders and concludes Saturday, Dec. 6. The auction is being conducted online at SCP Auctions. For more information, call 949-831-3700.
