Miles's blog

I used to think that I like baseball as much as the next guy, but now I don’t think that is true.  I enjoy watching the games and I read about baseball a lot, but there are so many others who spend much more time on the game than I do.  The internet has thousands of websites devoted to baseball, most of them not by paid employees or leagues or teams or media, but just by fans.   Clearly these guys love the game more than I do.

But what slays me the most is the amount of baseball-related items for sale.  I have never collected memorabilia, so I don’t have thousands of baseball cards, or game-worn jerseys, or even autographs.  I do have some clothing, and even a Rockies tie which was a Father’s Day present. I have some jerseys.  However, there is so much more stuff to buy.

·        Neckties.  Ties with signatures of famous players, stadium diagrams, types of pitches, baseballs, bats, team logos.  This would probably be a lucrative market if ties themselves were not going out of fashion.

·        Pens. They have pens made from the wood of seats taken from major league stadiums for $190.  They sell pens in the shape of bats, pens with baseball scenes, rollerball pens with team logos, pens with multiple colors, even pens with a baseball which pops off.

·        Stadiums.  You can get a jigsaw puzzle with all the stadiums of America pictured, 3D models of ballparks, and posters.

·        Dirt.  You can buy all kinds of baseball dirt. Dirt in keyrings, in collages, even a Yankee Stadium dirt coaster set.  Don’t you want to put your drink down on the official dirt that grown men had slid on?

·        Cuff links made from baseballs used in real games, watches with all kinds of baseball-related scenes on their faces, tie tacks with representations of players.

·        The Gap sells baseball underwear, Amazon has socks with the Phillies logo.

·        You can get a chair and ottoman set in the shape of a baseball or a glove, headboards and bunkbeds with baseballs on them, even a baseball toilet seat.

·        If you like baseball history you can buy seats from Yankee Stadium, Ebbets Field, and Comiskey Park.

·        Chandeliers, lamps, refrigerator magnets, etc.  I have none of these but obviously thousands of others do.