Auction Action

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Mike Hersh has been combing through the new listings at Mears and Legendary Auctions and has come up with a ton of cool stuff. Without further ado:

• I love — love — the arrow on this Nellie Fox tobacco display. Arrows were soooo much better in the analog era. (Here’s the full listing.)

• How cool would it be to own this Babe Ruth flip-card movie machine thingie? And look, there’s Bruce Menard placing a bid right now!

• Speaking of the Babe, it doesn’t get much better than this: the Bambino in a Yankees cardigan! So much to like there — the shawl collar, the cigar in the Babe’s hand, the Bell Telephone sign in the background, the parked car, etc. Oh, and the other player is Al Devormer (full listing).

• Speaking of Hall of Famers in sweaters, check out this awesome shot of one Tyrus Raymond Cobb (full listing).

• I’ve never been a huge slot machine guy, but I might change my tune if more machines featured baseball iconography instead of cherries and bells and such (full listing).

• Speaking of the coin-operated sports gadgets, when’s the last time you saw a women’s hockey pinball game?

• Who’s that on the right? None other than Honus Wagner, taking a rare turn in a basketball uni. Love the sash-like trainer’s insignia, too (full listing).

• What’s better than a pocketknife with baseball imagery? A pocketknife with baseball imagery with its own leather carrying case!

• Great illustrations on this 1956 football card display box.

• There are baseball cards, and then there are baseball-themed cards (full listing).

• I really like this patch design from the 1958 MLB Japanese tour.

• When Bill Veeck introduced the White Sox’s leisure suit uniforms in 1976, he apparently had a jersey made up for himself. Would be stronger with the proper number/NOB font, though.

• Speaking of the White Sox, how about a pair of one of history’s greatest stirrup designs? Possibly the only uniform element ever to feature a sock on a sock!

• Yet another Chisox oddity: a pair of Carlton Fisk pants that were converted into shorts.

• How awesome are these little die-cut baseball figurines? And there’s plenty more where those came from.

• And here’s a great one to go out on: the Big Train in a Navajo-style sweater (full listing).

There’s a new entry on the Permanent Record blog, but it isn’t about report cards. It’s about some stuff that I found in — well, here, see for yourself.

Uni Watch News Ticker: As you probably know, Kobe Bryant suffered a broken nose in the NBA All-Star Game, so he’s now wearing a facemask. ”¦ Here’s the new USA away kit, which debuted yesterday in a friendly match against Italy. … Francisco Cervelli is back to wearing the S100 helmet. ”¦ For the first time since 1948, the NFL will play a game on a Wednesday. ”¦ The St. Cloud Riverbats are now the St. Cloud Rox. ”¦ Here’s a rare treat: footage from the 1999 O’s/Halos TATC game (big thanks to Jack Krabbe). … You probably know that Howard Cosell announced the news John Lennon’s death on Monday Night Football. But did you know that ABC’s crawl misspelled “Beatles”? (Good one from Tom Nawrocki.) … Disturbing to see black Mets logos on the locker stools down in spring training. And yes, that’s not the only disturbing thing in that photo, but one thing at a time. … Apparently they’ve run out of colors for good causes, because the Canucks just gave away pink anti-bullying T-shirts (from Adam Jackson). … Here’s a good question, submitted by Michael Weinstein: When the Knicks used the Yankees-style “NY” logo, why was that legal? Did the Yanks have to give them permission? Or is that logo in the public domain, like the wishbone C? There’s also the question of why the Knicks would wanna use the iconic logo of another New York team, but that’s a separate question. All you legal types, fill us in. … Whoa, what’s going on here? Due to a miscommunication, both teams showed up in their home whites, so the road team had to borrow the home team’s road jerseys (from Chad Fette). … New uniforms for the Kia Tigers. … If you don’t like politics mixed with your sports, skip to the next item. But for everyone else, check this out: The City Council of Kodaira, Japan, where FC Tokyo practices, wore FC Tokyo uniforms at a council meeting as a good luck gesture toward the team (great one from Jeremy Brahm). … Tyler Kepner was in Marlins camp yesterday and says the batting helmets didn’t have the raised/stitched logo appliqués that we saw photos of from the winter meetings. “Just a regular logo decal,” he says. ”¦ Very nice uni match-up last night in Chicago, as the Blackhawks wore white at home and the Leafs wore their heritage thirds, creating a classic Original Six pairing. ”¦ Another interesting tidbit from that Leafs/’Hawks game: “Apparently the trainer pulled a fast one on Michael Frolik,” says Greg Townsend. “He hasn’t had a goal in the past 26 games, so he was given a black helmet for pregame warm-ups while everybody else had white.” ”¦ The Knicks have finally updated their center court logo — no more black, and it’s about fucking time already (screen shot by Ryan Ross). ”¦ My Page 2 colleague Jim Caple has ranked all 30 MLB uniforms. ”¦ This is pretty amazing: A photographer down in Tampa shot all his Yankees Photo Day pics with an iPhone — in a bathroom — and now Getty has picked up the photos (thanks, Kirsten). ”¦ Speaking of Photo Day, this is weird: Remember how the Indians updated their uniforms for 2012? They wore last year’s jerseys for Photo Day (from Michael Strittmatter). ”¦ Georgia Tech baseball has a player named Mitch Earnest, but his NOB is misspelled as “Earnst” (good spot by Douglas King). ”¦ “MLB 12 The Show has a new mode called Diamond Dynasty, where you create your own team and play against other people,” says Caleb Yorks. “What is important is that it seems you can create or re-create any uniform you want. Same goes for logos. Anybody with a PS3 can play this mode and create a 3-D rendering of the uniform. This video shows a little bit of the uni and logo creator.” ”¦ See this Ducks logo tie? Coach Bruce Boudreau was wearing it last night (from Luke Rosnick). ”¦ Someone on the Spurs was wearing a black arm sleeve last night, which created the illusion of a disembodied hand (as spotted by Tim E. O’Brien). ”¦ No photos, but here’s a description of the Cardinals’ World Series ring design (from Michael McLaughlin).