This blog will help explain why I
love both sports/sports history as well as garage sales. Sports are loved by
millions upon millions of people while others think athletes are just overpaid
for playing a game. That might be the case but looking back at sports, players
hadn’t always been paid as they are today and with that in mind, let’s go back
to the times of Babe Ruth when players had to work during the offseason to pay
their bills. During the late teens and early 1920s, the Yankees heritage and
history during that time are remembered highly by sports fans and historians.
They played home games at the Polo Grounds IV in Manhattan from 1913 until
1922. There were so many great players during these years, such as Ty Cobb, but
when stadiums are torn down, a lot of heritage is lost. Today, owners and
cities are constantly trying to build the biggest and most updated stadium
whereas the need for the older stadium is gone. Sometimes the old stadium is
torn down to build the new one or the new one is built elsewhere and the old
one is torn down after the new one is complete. When stadiums are demolished,
tales of past players and their heroics are often lost.
Going with my Dad around garage
sales in Florida less than 10 years ago (I can’t remember the exact
date), we always looked for valuable and unique items. As the day progressed,
the less stuff is available at garage sales since a lot of collectors shop
early to find the best deals. We went down a housing area where a lady had
started a garage sale late and just finished putting stuff out. She was
starting to get busy when I walked to a table in the middle of the driveway
where a pile of old looking sports stuff was and picked up a unique looking
wood folding chair. It was by a few other sports items so I felt something was
unique about this item and quickly held onto it and asked the busy lady running
the garage sale where it came from. She quickly answered that she had heard the
Yankees. It looked to me as if she was selling her husband’s sports stuff,
whether willingly or not, but hearing Yankees and the price of $15, it was worth
it.
Researching many stadiums and looking
at old photographs, as well as reaching out to collectors, there is no definite
answer to its background or history. Looking at the wood and discoloration, as
well as the gold writing as well as style of font on the top, the chair looks
to have been from the 1920s. Also, being such a high number, there had to have
originally been a lot of chairs. Speaking with a collector, he stated that it
is quite possible that it was a bleacher seat or a chair that old stadiums
would rent out if someone didn’t want to sit on a hard bleacher but instead have
back support. There are two screw holes in the bottom that could be attached to
a wood bleacher. The collector thought there would likely be a metal bracket
attached somewhere. If the lady selling it was correct, it could easily be from
the Polo Grounds IV, or even their earlier stadium at Hilltop Park (1903-1912)
or from the yearly years at the original Yankees Stadium (1923-2009) – all three
stadiums have sadly been torn down. If anyone has any ideas or input on the
chair, I would love to know and find out the true history of the stadium chair.
Until then, I’ll continue to imagine who sat on this chair nearly 100 years ago
and watched some of the all-time greats play America’s favorite pastime in
historical remembrance of an early stadium – including Babe Ruth hitting a home
run out of left field…
Also, be on the lookout for one
of my articles to come out next year about the oldest ballpark in continuous
use in the United States, Warren Ballpark, and a lot of the all-time greats to
have passed through the small and forgotten town in Arizona – including members
of the notorious Black Sox Scandal.
