Apropos of my recent post about the things we keep, don’t keep, or don’t get in the first place, I went ahead and purchased a copy of the 2021 Mets yearbook. I was especially curious because of the whole 2020 season having been played under a Covid cloud.
Sadly, but not entirely unexpectedly, it was a colossal disappointment and quite inferior to the 1964 edition I had received a few days prior.
Where the earlier version contained a multitude of charming information in its scant 48-page back-and-white pages reflective of a more “innocent” era, a time when I didn’t even understand that baseball was a business, the most recent publication — which comes in at 200 pages — had practically nothing other than pictures (colorful as they were); the only information on the players were bare basics — bats/throws, height, weight, date and place of birth.
The lack of any statistics really stuck out. Perhaps the Mets expect fans to buy the media guide, an option that wasn’t available back when Shea Stadium opened as such items were reserved for, you know, the media.
Both contained a nod to community service, which is nice but, let’s face it, pretty much a requirement. There were also head shots of all the executives, scouts, coaching staff, etc., in both magazines.
Newer is not necessarily better.
Is this the same across the sport? Are other team’s offering similar issues, heavy on images, light on data? Perhaps they’re simply catering to an audience that is more interested in getting a collectible at the ballpark than in reading.
When I was a kid growing up in Crown Heights section of Brooklyn — a short walk from where Ebbets Field once stood — I had to good fortune to have a great used book store on Nostrand Avenue, a relatively short walk from my apartment. (In those days, parents let their eight-year-old kids freely roam the streets.) I was able to find some amazing treasures there such as yearbooks for teams that had no real business being there, like the Cardinals, Red Sox, and Twins, among others. Maybe that’s why they only cost less than a buck apiece. Now nostalgia can potentially make such magazines tremendously expensive. A few years ago, when I was working on Hank Greenberg in 1938, I treated myself to the 1936 edition of Who’s Who in Baseball (not to be confused with the similar Who’s Who in the Major Leagues Baseball) that carried his image on the cover. Today I see you can get a copy for just $3 on eBay. Pardon me a few minutes while I jump into that rabbit hole and see what else is available on the cheap.
…
I’m back. Wow. A 1929 copy for $49? Hmm. Well, my birthday is coming up soon…
But here we go again, circling back to that entry mentioned above.
Should I or shouldn’t I? What’s the purpose? Perhaps it will give me a few minutes of entertainment for the novelty of it, but then what? So it will sit on a shelf, like the Greenberg edition.
Oh, hateful indecision, thou thief of time and souls!
Postscript: The seller of the 1929 WWIB offered me a reduced price so I bought it. Waiting for the remorse to set in.
is available on Amazon.com,
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