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Snyder Book Collection Contest

Sample essays

Howard Graham , Cooperstown, New York - graduate student in American Studies;

             “Growing Up in the Home of Baseball”

              I have an unusual baseball background.  My grandmother, Armella Mescher (Phillips), grew up in Dyersville, Iowa, the home of the Field of Dreams. She became the first woman from Dyersville to enlist in the Women’s Air Corp (WACs) during World War II.  Eventually, she was stationed in Florence, South Carolina where she screened films for soldiers; in Florence she met my grandfather, Hubert “Buddy” Phillips; he was from New Jersey.  Following their service, they married and moved to Cooperstown, New York, the Home of Baseball.  They raised nine children, my mother, Kathy, was the seventh.  Their interest, Amy’s, Buddy’s, Kathy’s, in baseball was/is recreational.

            However, like many Cooperstown residents, baseball affected their professional lives.  My grandmother worked as a receptionist at the Otesaga Hotel where Hall of “Famers” stay during induction weekends.  My mother has spent over twenty years at the Clark Sports’ Center (formerly the Alfred Corning Clark Gymnasium), the site of the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.  My father, Sean Graham, an electrician by trade, eventually became the Codes Enforcer for the Village of Cooperstown and had the responsibility to issue and enforce permits for vendors and entrepreneurs interested in operating booths and temporary store fronts during induction ceremony weekends.  Because of this unusual combination, and unusual even for a Cooperstownian, I had access to a lot of baseball, baseball players, and baseball memorabilia.  My grandmother got me autographs and to the front of many autograph lines; my mother, to this day, sends me an H.O.F. induction program; my father reminded me that the memorabilia game was a business not a hobby for many. 

Several high school friends got jobs or internships at the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Amber Parmentier moved from the Hall of Fame to Major League Baseball.  Our friendship and Amber’s generosity allowed me the opportunity to attend games one and five of the 2000 World Series between the New York Yankees and New York Mets - the so-called Subway Series - game one of the 2005 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros, and the 2001 All Star game in Seattle.  Kristian Connolly moved from the Hall of Fame to the Minnesota Twins and, eventually, Major League Baseball.  Our friendship and Kristian’s kindness allowed me the opportunity to attend several Twins games, and his continued work in, for, and with baseball keeps my interest keen (he is currently organizing people to protest Major League Baseball’s decision to cancel the annual Hall of Fame game following this year’s [2008] contest).

              The collection I am submitting for the Snyder is built, in large part, from my relationship with these five people.  My access to autographs led me into the world of baseball memorabilia, a thriving business in Cooperstown.  My submission includes six baseball card-pricing magazines that I used to chart the worth of my collection between 1989 and 1992, when I outgrew baseball cards.  They are of interest primarily because they give insight into which cards and players were popular and marketable at the time of the magazine’s publication. Three of the six magazines in my submission, dating from June 1989 through July 1990, feature then baseball “phenom” Ken Griffey Jr.  The others feature Jim Abbot, the one handed pitcher who made the major leagues with the California Angels.  Deion Sanders, the baseball and football star, as well as current television personality, and Bo Jackson, also a star in the NFL as well as in the MLB; the Jackson piece (Beckett Baseball Card Monthly, June 1990) is particularly interesting because the cover photo is the iconic image of Jackson wearing shoulder pads and holding a baseball bat behind his head; 

               My collection also includes fourteen Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony programs dating from between 1986 and 2007.  The sponsors, aesthetics, and format of these programs have changed decidedly over the years.  The current style of program (2006-2007) is uniform in its design and has an official title, “Memories and Dreams;” it is “published exclusively for Hall of Fame members.”  The older programs feature corporate advertisements for beer, cigarettes, the Air Force, and underwear (Jim Palmer, Hall of Fame pitcher as model), and vary in style, color, and layout. Assuredly, these changes are related to the changes we see in the game of baseball, its fan base, its marketing strategy, and its place in society.  Some of these programs are more special to me than others; the 1986 program, which features Willie McCovey is important to me because he was one of my favorite players despite the fact he finished playing two years after I was born.  The 1990 program features Joe Morgan who was extraordinarily kind to my grandmother, who checked-him-into the Otesaga Hotel, when he visited Cooperstown during his induction year. 

               One thing that has remained constant about these programs is their inclusion of the Ford C. Frick and J.G. Taylor Spink award winners.  The Frick Award honors a baseball broadcaster while the Spink Award honors a writer’s contribution to baseball.  As part of my annotated bibliography, I’ve edited eight Frick and Spink Award bios.  My sources were limited to the official Baseball Hall of Fame website, the original program, public websites, and Kristian Connolly, former MLB employee.  I am interested in this because the broadcasters and writers of baseball have given America the language through which baseball is interpreted, understood, and communicated, as such, they play an important role in positioning baseball socially and culturally.  My editing privileges location, employer, year, club, and social service and downplays celebrity and antics.  I do, however, include nicknames and catch-phrases because this puts the award winner in a wider cultural context.

I’ve also included official programs from the World Series (2000, 2005), the American League Division Series (2002), the American League Championship Series (2002), All Star Games (2001, 2002), team yearbooks (Yankees 1986, Twins 2001), Media Guides (Red Sox 2001, Twins 2001), and team magazines (Red Sox, Twins).    

                  All of these materials I bought when I was kid, purchased at an event I attended, or acquired through friends (Amber and Krisitan), my grandmother, or my parents. It is, in a sense, an organic collection; a collection in real time; a record of my interest in and relationship to baseball, family, and friends between 1986 and the present. I do not display my collection; I pull the materials out of the cupboard as reference or to simply look at and through them.  It is in many senses an incomplete collection; I do not have a complete run of Hall of Fame programs.  But, in other ways, because of the ways in which I’ve collected and from whom I’ve collected, as a young entrepreneur and memorabilia collector, as a Cooperstown “townie,” as a grateful son, grandson, and friend, the collection is complete.  I could fill-in-gaps by purchasing materials from memorabilia shops, internet auctions sites, or other collectors, and I may do that in the future, however, it would fundamentally alter the basis of this collection. The future of this collection depends on my continued dedication not only to baseball, but to Cooperstown, family, and friends. 

                   I think this collection is unique and deserving of Snyder consideration both because of the manner in which it was collected, and the space from which it was collected.  Moreover, I think it is timely, especially in light of the steroid crisis in baseball and visually powerful.  Thank you for considering my entry.

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