This calls to mind a story from my childhood. My aunt and uncle went to a Jays game in 1993 (which was a big deal for me and my kin, as we are all resident in New Brunswick). At the time, my little brother's favourite player was Roberto Alomar, mine was Joe Carter.

My aunt and uncle stayed at the SkyDome hotel, and happened to meet Alomar (who lived there) in the elevator. Upon arrival back in NB, my aunt presented my little brother with an Alomar autograph. While I anxiously awaited what I could only assume would be the presentation of a Carter autograph to me, my aunt looked at me and said, "don't worry Leigh, we didn't forget you; we got you a Darnell Coles autograph."

Ouch.

we didn't forget you; we got you a Darnell Coles autograph

We brought back dessert for both of you! Here's your ice cream, and for Leigh, here's your brussels sprouts!

QOTD :

The one piece of memorabilia I would most like to own is probably the Cartwright Ball.

If not that, I'd say the spikes that Cobb used to spike Jimmy Austin (in the famous photo).

My favourite piece of baseball memorabilia - I know this may be a bit dismaying, but I don't actually have one as I'm not really a baseball collector. I do have one baseball that I will never part with; a baseball that a close friend of mine, in high school, painted in the form of the t'ai chi. But that's not memorabilia, it's just a personal talisman.

For me the item I'd keep would be the one foul ball I (sort of) caught. Back at the old Ex I was sitting just on the third base side of home plate and the ball bounced off my (now very sore) hands into my brother-in-laws lap just barely missing the family jewels. My 3 nephews and 1 niece may never have been born if I didn't deflect that ball. I later got it autographed by a couple of Jays from (I think) the 87 season but the signatures vanished over the years (they used cheap ball-point pens).

As for the memorabilia I'd like... hm... autographed jersey by Cy Young (Cleveland Spiders) would probably be top on the list, although the Joe Carter bat would be cool.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=43353&item=5135174066&rd=1
The Rick Monday HR so I could blow it up a la the Cubs Bartman ball.

From a purely financial perspective, plus it's pretty cool...COMN

err... that should read the Rick Monday HR 'ball'.

I would take any bat used by Lou Gehrig.

In 1951, when I was in Grade 8, I lived about 20 miles north of Chicago. My father had recently announced that we were moving back to Canada, and I was furious (I’d just found the gazelle-eyed Katie, after all; and my baseball career would be thwarted, too). So a couple of weeks before The Move I went to Wrigley Field with my buddy. Early. We always got there early. The Cubs were playing the Giants that day and the stands weren’t very full. I had brought a Reach-Spalding Official Ball with me–bought to soften the blow of my ended career. We walked down towards the Giants' dugout, where Leo Durocher was schmoozing half-heartedly with someone in street-clothes. I called out to him, would he sign the ball. “Sure, kid. Let’s have it.” He gave it back to me and asked where I was from, which launched me into my story about going back to Canada and not getting to replace Andy Pafko in centre field and all. He said he’d played in Toronto and it was a ‘good ball town’, reached out and took the ball back. He flipped it into the Giants’ dugout. For an instant I thought this was some sort of cruel prank, that the ball was history. When I looked into the dugout I recognized Sal Maglie and Monte Irvin and Alvin Dark, and this young guy with a big smile standing there--Willie Mays, the Say Hey Kid himself. The Giants had called him up to the majors a couple of weeks earlier, since he'd been hitting up a storm at Minneapolis. This was his first trip to Wrigley. (And he hit a homer that day, off Turk Lown, I think. Retrosheet doesn’t do 1951.) Anyway, about five minutes later, Durocher handed the ball back to me after its trip down the bench, and I saw on it the signatures of Irvin, Maglie, Dark, Bobby Thomson, Larry Jansen, Don Mueller, Whitey Lockman, Hank Thompson, Willie Mays, Wes Westrum, Clint Hartung, and a coach or two. (I’ve still got it: thank goodness I didn’t sell or trade it for some Eddie Stephens or Rocky Nelson autograph after I got up here. I did trade a couple of Ralph Kiner and Ewell Blackwell autographs for Stan Goliat and Burleigh Grimes and Sparky Anderson (George). I’m glad I have the Grimes, the last of the officially sanctioned spitballers.)

After I post this, in fact, I’m going to hunt up that ball for another look.

I believe that I would want Tom Henke's glasses.

My favourtie baseball possession right now would have to be my Ferguson Jenkins ball that was signed in Cooperstown at his HOF ceremony.

Either that or my Manuel Lee signed rookie card...

I'd like to have Babe Ruth's 1st Professional Home Run that was hit into Lake Ontario, never to be seen again.

I'd like one of the T-209 Honus Wagner tobacco baseball cards...yes, they're worth a crapload of money, but it'd still be really cool. That or a game used Josh Gibson bat.

I have very few pieces of baseball memorabilia, but I have a ball signed by Jeff Bagwell. I saw an exhibition game at the Braves spring training site in Florida against the Astros and I went quite early to the park. All the fans at the park were huddled around the Braves dugout waiting for the players and so I went over the Astros dugout (where I was the only fan). I soon got talking to an old Astros coach (I still have no idea who he was) and he asked me if I would like an autograph of one of the players. Well, Bagwell was the only Astro player out doing some stretches and the couach I had been talking got Bagwell to come over and sign my ball. Good times....although I was a bit disappointed later as I learned that during the pregame warmup stuff, MAddux, Glavine and Smoltz were signing autographs in the Braves bullpen. Oh well...

I would like "the ball" that Piazza got nailed in the head with, with a little spattering of Piazza blood, signed by both parties.

Tasteless I know, but hey its a good piece of merchandise.

Question of the Day: Forget about price for a second; what piece of memorabilia from the entirety of baseball history would you most like to own?

A 100 million dollar cheque signed by Alex Rodriguez.

http://www.terryfoxrun.org
I don't have much by the way of cool baseball stuff now. I'm not greedy, really; I just would want a replica Jackie Robinson jersey. I've wanted one forever.

Perhaps, i wouold like the metal plate in Johnnie O's head....although thats a lil freaky

A hard choice, but I think that if there was one piece of baseball memorabilia I would like to own, it would be a bat (hopefully signed) Joe Dimaggio used in the last game of his hit streak. No one has ever really come that close to it, and it will probably be a while. That, or something from Honus Wagner's 1906 season, which I believe is still the best ever according to win shares.

If all this fails, I would hold onto the only really cool piece of baseball memorabilia I have, a signed Shawn Green Toronto Blue Jays (1999?) bat

I would like Kelly Gruber's glove from the play that should have been called the first ever World Series Triple Play.

I'd love to have a Hank Aaron jersey.

My most prized baseball bit is the ball Frank Catalanotto tossed to me in '03 when we had the VOTE CATALANOTTO banner up during the All-Star voting. My wife later snuck it away from its resting place and got Frank to sign it.

My most prized baseball memorabilia... hmmmm...

I'd have to say either my baseball signed by the entire 1991 jays team... or my two world series programs from 1992 and 1993....

It wasn't the forst ever WS Triple Play. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there was one around 1920, and the White/Olerud/Gruber play would have been the second of all-time.

You're bang-on, Simon. 1920, Cleveland 2B Bill Wambsganss turned an unassisted TP.

So the one mentioend above would have been the first (heh) "traditional" triple play.

For old memorabilia, I'd want the notebook (or is it notebooks?) that Jim Bouton was using as he wrote Ball Four, or the rocking chair that Satchel Paige "warmed up in" when he was pitching with the St. Louis Browns.

More recently, I'd like one of Phil Niekro's gameworn Blue Jays jerseys (they must be rare, only three exist), the bat / ball from Ichiro's 258th hit this year, and Otis Nixon's bat that he used to bunt out to end the 1992 World Series.

If I had to choose one, I'd take the chair, but it wouldn't be an easy choice.

If I could have anything it would probably be the home run ball Almoar hit off Eck.  Or the bat, but the ball would be even more special.  While something older would be worth a heck of a lot more, and have more mass appeal, the home run off Eckersley was the greatest baseball moment I ever witnessed and probably ever will.  I was 9 years old but the memory is still fresh.

I'm not a big collector but I still treasure the ball Rickey Henderson gave me in 92 or 93.  First game I ever had seats in the 100 level, must have been there when gates opened.  With only numbers on their jersey's lots of kids did not know that was the greatest lead off hitter ever.  When I finally yelled "hey Rickey" he tossed me the ball and I caught it.  Before bp ended my friend also managed to get one from him.  Every year the Domingo Cenedo signature I foolishly got on it gets closer and closer to erasing itself.