The Treasure of the Sierra Attic

My baseball library is divided into three main sections: the attic, my basement office, and the rest of the house. I was cleaning the attic yesterday, because what else is there to do?

While trying to cull the herd, putting things in boxes to eventually give away or ::shudder:: throw out, I can across a number of items that either brought back pleasant memories or served as a zeitgeist to the period when I acquired them.

So come with me on a trip down memory lane…

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These came from the New York Daily News during the Mets’ World Championship season in 1969. The first is a rendition by Bruce Stark — one oc the paper’s cartoonists back when there was such a thing — of outfielder Art Shamsky, one of several Mets which appeared, if I recall correctly, over the course of several Sundays.

I “encased” these in plastic wrap in an attempt to preserve them. What do you want, I was only 12 at the time? All things considered, they held up pretty well.

I saved a few other newspapers over the years, including the one below. More recent events in my miniscule collection include Mark McGwire’s record-setting home run and the death of Joe DiMaggio.

(Get a load of how much a paper cost in those days.)

(An aside: I came across several copies of the Montreal Star, my mother’s hometown paper, from 1956. The cover story was about the wreck of the Andrea Doria, a major event at the time. I wondered, why so many copies? Was there someone she knew on the ill-fated ship? Or even a survivor? I combed the issue thoroughly and discovered the reason: it contained her engagement announcement.)

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Next up, a number of biographies about players who were pretty good in their day, but unknown to most fans today, including Jackie Jensen, Red Schoendienst, Bobby Richardson, and others.

I am reluctant to part with these because they’re so unusual. And certainly not like today’s tell-all bios and memoirs. Speaking of which, this was a thing for a while: women spilling the intimate secrets — relatively speaking — of their courtships with and marriages to major leaguers.

Compare these to books from women like Charlene Gibson, spouse of Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, who pretty much offered guides to baseball for women, because they needed special attention.

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This is the first baseball book I ever bought. It was at a used book store on Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in between my house and P.S. 161. Percentage Baseball was perhaps the first to dig into what later became sabermetrics. I didn’t understand it then and I still don’t.

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These also came from that used book store. A dime apiece.

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Books like these are the reason I never like to see the words “complete,” “best,” or “definitive” in the title. because things keep changing every few years. Many of them offered their own take on deciding how the players were chosen for their special honors.

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I remember when you could get these for free just by requesting them from the American and National League offices. These specific Green Books contain info about the Mets for the first time:

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Does anyone remember the Senior Professional Baseball League? If not, I recommend Extra Innings: A Season in the Senior League and The Forever Boys: A Second Chance to Star Again.

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Not sure where this came from, but it’s obviously out of date. It might be a game giveaway, or sponsored by a bank or other company that advertised with the Mets. I have a poster that might have come from an old yearbook which featured — at the time — tiny headshots of everyone who played for them. It used to be that you could get through a whole season with 35 players, but the way things have progressed” over the past decade or so, the number is probably closer to 55, many of whom only appear in a handful of games. I can only imagine how big such a poster would have to be now.