This is the earliest known jersey worn by Ruth. There is no other jersey like it. The other two are most likely numbered. This one is un-numbered. I assume this is one of the reasons they’re cutting it up. A numbered jersey is probably deemed to be more valuable. However, this means that the jersey is from baseball’s infancy (before players had numbered jerseys), and has a special aspect to it.
I’d also like to mention that I do not have a “vast appreciation” for Babe Ruth. This is the first time I have ever typed out words relating to The Bambino. Neither am I “anguished” about this. As an American, I’m disgusted that a company would destroy such a rare article for profit. Please do not try to tell me that they are doing this so that some kid somewhere can own a piece of history. That is pure bullshit.
This is all about profit. I rank it right along side that band in Florida who got so much publicity because they planned to have someone commit suicide onstage. The extra publicity that Donruss has received is priceless. More people will go out and buy cards from this printing release in hopes of getting a swatch. All of this is merely money in their already bloated coffers.
Pay attention class. Donruss will be milking this one like the last cow on the farm. Notice where it says the swatches will be included in runs for the next three years? They will see a gigantic boost in sales for years because of this. Again, this has nothing to do with baseball and everything to do with pure, crass profit taking. I’m a devout capitalist, but there are limits and this is one of them. When I have children, they will never, ever be encouraged to collect baseball cards.
That’ll teach 'em. I’m not sure exactly who the 'em is, though.
It could be the baseball card companies, every single one of them regardless of whether they had anything to do with what you disagree with, for losing .0000000000000000001% of their profit.
It could be you, for sticking to your guns about the most horrific crime against humanity since Greedo shot first.
Or it could be your future children, who, by being denied baseball cards, become just that much more likely to never appreciate the very thing you’re ranting about!
But yeah. That’ll teach 'em.
Ender, have you perchance noticed how most sports card companies are now larding their issues with all sorts of weirdass crap so as to cause people with “completist” attitudes to over-purchase by a factor of three just to get that last Barry Bonds laminated bat splinter with the Holographic Homerun Horker™ emblem? Did you notice how Dunross is going to drip feed all 2,100 of those jersey swatches over a period of three years. I know sheer outright greed when I see it. How about you?
Remember Magic cards? Remember Pokemon? Do you think complete decks of those will hold anywhere near 1% of their purchase price value (redundant card costs included) a few decades from now?
Much of the memorabilia market, and especially collector’s cards are one of the most blatant ripoffs since the idea of ripping people off was ripped off from the inventor of ripoffs back when ripoffs were still known as just-plain-theft.
Any exposure my kids have to baseball will be from swinging a bat at the plate or cheering in the bleachers.
I remember Magic cards. I’ve played it since 1995. While no one back in 1992 even dreamed Magic would be as big as it is today and even the dealers continue to wonder how it is the bottom hasn’t fallen out long ago, two things clear. First, the cards are worth exactly what people are willing to pay for them. Second, once paid for, the cards are theirs to do with as they wish.
Would I pay $600 for a black lotus? Nope. But some people would and that’s what they’re worth.
Would I be horrified at someone taking that lotus and tossing it into a shredder? Yeah, probably. But, you know what? It’s theirs to do with as they wish. While I’m sure part of me would be horrified because there’s only a finite number of them around and it’s a collector’s item, really, the main reason is bigger than that. I’d be thinking “hey, if he didn’t want it, he could have just given it to me. I’m sure I’d be able to sell it.”
I’m pretty sure there are a few people in this thread who, given the money and the opportunity, would have done the exact same thing Donruss did, even if they were sentamentally attached to Babe’s legendary status.
Here’s one thing you seem to be forgetting, throughout this entire rant. The black lotus? It’s popular based upon its own merits.
The da Vinci codex? Same thing.
The Declaration of Independence? Same thing.
Heck, even the 500th home run ball of player X falls into that category. The object in question is valuable because of the specific history behind it. Something actually happened to it or because of it or through it or with it.
Babe Ruth’s jersey? It’s not popular because it’s of what it is but because of who it was worn by. Well guess what? Babe Ruth wore a lot of things. Not all of them need to be saved. The only reason it needs to be saved is so people can point to it and say “ah…good ol’ Babe. It’s nice to remember him.” There are probably more than a few things on this planet that allow you to do that.
Might I point you to…a Babe Ruth baseball card?
Snoooooo (pauses to count the 'o’s) ooooooooooopy: it wasn’t so much that laws were changed, but there was some kerfuffle.
To precis, Adelaide decided to change the name of Burbridge Road to Bradman Drive, to honour Don Bradman. A cafe and an adult erotica store among others planned to change thair names to involve ‘Bradman’ in there. For example, the adult store was planning to change its name to ‘Erotica on Bradman’, and the cafe to ‘Bradman’s Cafe on the Drive’.
Bradman wanted the street name change to stop after he heard that, and the Bradman Foundation, a charitable organisation with the rights to the Bradman name planned to sue. In the end, though, the street was renamed, the adult store took another name and the cafe is closed.
Threats of lawsuits and so on, but negotiation (and public ill-will towards the businesses) seems to have won the day.
That is a point. But that fact behind the point was (and still is) inccorrect. The record “only” made it to 80 years old (not nearly 100) and then it was surpassed. But he does have at least one other reasonably major record (career slugging) that still stands (several of his have fallen in the last few years).
But I think the debate boils down to: at what point is the item no longer reasonably unique to warrant preservation? There are three jerseys, but this one might be unique from the other two. If there were 50 would it not matter? Frankly, I would prefer to see this one preserved, but don’t care enough to be particularly bothered if it isn’t.
Heck, there was only one Berlin Wall, and it was historically much more important, and I wasn’t bothered when they broke that into thousands of pieces and sold them on QVC and malls around America.
I don’t think that anyone’s arguing that greed isn’t the reason behind all of this. I guess i just raise an eyebrow when some people get all worked up over greed when it results in the cutting up of a baseball shirt, but not when it results in people losing jobs or not having enough to eat.*
Greed and self-interest are integral parts of the neoclassical economic dogma that dominates modern America. The case of this shirt is just another manifestation of a pervasive ethic.
*No, this isn’t aimed at anyone in particular; it’s just a general observation.
No, the candy bar is not named after Babe Ruth. If it were it would be called the Babe Ruth, not the Baby Ruth. Jordan is probably more widely known throughout the world than Babe Ruth is. Most of the world knows basketball and could give a flying rats ass about baseball.
I reluctantly agree that this new economic model is pervasive. I find it absolutely disgusting. Novel methods of raping a marketplace just don’t qualify as real innovation in my own book.
b]Guin**, I can’t speak for Zenster here, but I think I know where he’s coming from, and I doubt he’s wiping the sweat from his fevered brow as he philosophically vents his rage at baseball card manufacturers, B Grade actor-style. Sure it pisses him off, but if I’m correct in where he’s coming from, it’s less melodrama, and more than a little practicality about all this: ie, a simple life lesson for his kids - “Son, those things are a rip-off. And this is why…”
I know that’s how I feel about all those collectors’ schemes.
"Buy the first installment for the special price of… " Yeesh. People still fall for that stuff, and if Zenster teaches only one young person not to, then he’s done them a massive favour.
That’s my point. If you agree there is a point at which it isn’t necessary to preserve a specific example, then it seems reasonable to me that reasonable people can disagree about the number at which that line is crossed.
