Auctiva Emporium: palmer999

I've been in the baseball sound nostalgia field formally since the mid '80s but have always been an audiophile, even as a young teen. How vividly I remember taping, on 7" reels, Brooklyn Dodger, NY Giant and NY Yankee broadcasts way back starting in 1952. What happened to those precious reels? During the years of college and then my house being sold, they were lost or accidentally thrown out. It more or less reflects what Red Barber once told me. In '90, I worked with Red and Mark Schramm of NPR to present an Opening Day program. I was given Red's private number in Tallahassee to explain which of his calls I would be supplying for said program. At the end of our conversation, I asked him, "Red, will you do me a favor? Please send any single scorecard that you kept for any Brooklyn broadcast" to which he replied, "My wife said they cluttered up the basement so they were thrown out." I was amazed and said,"Red, do you realize the worth of what was discarded?" to which he replied, "So there's a rich garbage collector somewhere in Tallahassee." In my case, perhaps there was a rich garbage collector in Passaic, NJ? Occasionally I have been the guest on either sports talk radio stations nationwide or on stations that present sports talk segments. Invariably I've been asked the same questions,"How did your business begin?" or "Were there any persons or persons very influential in the growth of your business?" My answer has always been YES. There was one single person who, more than anyone else, who exerted a positive influence. His name? George M. Steinbrenner. To understand how it came about, below is a letter I wrote to NY Daily News sportswriter and author Bill Madden. The letter was written two days before Mr. Steinbrenner passed away and mailed just one day before it happened. Thanks for your time and interest. Charlie ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Dear Mr. Madden. My sincerest congratulations on your marvelous book, “Steinbrenner” which I just finished. What meticulousness. Just brilliant. A perfect biography filled with the perfect blend of politics,business, sport and personal life. I am writing not only to congratulate you but to tell you how “The Boss” changed my life for the better without our ever having met. How it was he who’s responsible for www.baseballtapes.com. I hope you have a few minutes of valuable time to read what I’m about to lay down; if you do, I think you’ll enjoy this unusual true story. Let me take you back to the time when baseball nostalgia i.e.collectibles began-I estimate in the late ‘70s. I’m sure you recall the craze involving cards, autographs, bats, balls, scorecards,uniforms and so on and so forth. But I noticed something missing and my always having been an audiophile told me so. Cards and all the rest were fun but nonetheless way too inanimate for yours truly. One day in late ‘84, I was perusing an Old Time Radio catalog looking for tapes of Jack Benny, Fred Allen, the Great Gildersleeve and other programs, I spied something amazing. Buried in the back of that catalog were some 1950’s Brooklyn Dodger and NY Yankee broadcasts. “Good heavens” I thought. How could anything like that be obscured in the back of an OTR catalog? I was positive they had enough impact to produce a business if exposed to fans nationwide. I ordered and sat in awe listening to them. Then the idea struck right then and there so I went out and bought two high speed tape duplicators. Then I made excellent master cassettes out of the games just bought. I went to our local magazine store to buy the latest edition of “Sports Collectors Digest” and took out a four dollar ad offering those games for $9.95 + P&H. What happened? That $4 ad brought in $4,000 in one week. But I didn’t bank all the profit. I turned it into advertising in newspape