Sports Memorabilia Blog: Sports News: Football, Baseball & More

Celtics Hunting Wallace

The recently dethroned NBA Champion Boston Celtics are reportedly really going after free agent forward Rasheed Wallace. The Celtics flew Danny Ainge, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and head coach Doc Rivers out to Detroit to meet with Wallace this morning. The eccentric 34-year old veteran averaged 12.0 points per game, his apparent last of five seasons with the Pistons.

While Rasheed Wallace memorabilia may not be at the forefront for autographed basketball items collectors, Celtics memorabilia collectors and fans would probably be re-energized by adding another NBA Champion to the rotation. Whether the NBA’s leader in collecting technical fouls over the past decade can gel with such a no-nonsense cohesive unit remains to be seen.

Penguins Cup Items Now In

I was looking through some of our new hockey memorabilia arrivals we’ve added to stock this week and came across some great new Penguins autographed items from the 2009 Stanley Cup Championship team. There’s quite a few Marc-Andre Fleury autographs as well as some autographed hockey photos from the series-clinching Game 7 victory. The Pens’ seven game dethroning of the Red Wings was especially remarkable being they found themselves out of the playoffs completely at the All-Star Break midway through the season. That along with the fact that more than half of teams in professional sports that lose a championship meeting miss the playoffs completely the following season. With a young core in Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Fleury, the Penguins will have a great chance to make this just their first Cup of the 2000s.

Logano Grabs First Cup Win

Billed as a phenom behind the wheel since he was 13 years old, rookie Joey Logano took home his first career victory in Sunday’s rain-shortened Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at the New Hampshire Speedway just outside Concord, NH. A Connecticut native, Logano and veteran crew chief Greg Zippadeli were on of a handful of cars that gambled with pit strategy as rain clouds headed into the area. The 19-year old Logano buzzed by leader Ryan Newman at lap 264 and kept a quick enough pace to stay in front of four-time Series champ Jeff Gordon before the rains came on lap 274. NASCAR would have the field run six laps under caution before throwing the red flag and parking all the cars on pit road. After a twenty-five minute delay, the race would be called and Joey Logano at age 19 years and 35 days, became the youngest Sprint Cup race winner in the sport’s history.

Despite the rain, fans were all over his trailer picking up Joey Logano merchandise and trying to hunt down signed driver photos after the race. It was a great day for the 19-year old, who with the win now sits 21st in points with one win and four top-10s in his young racing career.

Another note for fans and NASCAR memorabilia collectors: the man Logano replaced in the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota, Tony Stewart, lead 40 laps on Sunday and kept his points lead over Jeff Gordon at 69 points.

MLB Auctioning Mothers’ Day Bats

One of the coolest sports memorabilia news I’ve seen in quite a while, Major League Baseball will auction off the pink MLB game used bats from Mothers’ Day and all proceeds will go to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a foundation for breast cancer research. In addition to the game used baseball items, autographed baseball bats will also be auctioned off, some bearing the signatures of stars like David Wright, Mark Teixeira and Jim Thome.

The auction concludes on July 11th.

For First Time In Long Time, Today’s Is Clippers’ Day

The same night they watched their cross-arena rival Los Angeles Lakers advance to their second consecutive NBA Finals, it was also a great night for the oft-second class Clippers. That was the night that 3,100 miles away in East Rutherford, New Jersey that the Clippers won the first selection in tonight’s NBA Draft and the right to select the consensus best player available in Blake Griffin. He’s carried the weight that both Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose carried a year ago as there is no obvious number two player available. We all saw the rush for Derrick Rose autographs after the Bulls picked him number one overall, while searches for Miami Heat items went through the roof when they landed Beasley second overall. Will the impact be similar for a franchise where the term “suffering” is an understatement? With the 6′10 Griffin, the Clips will get an athletic big man who moves and shoots well anywhere within 16 feet of the basket.

While Griffin to Los Angeles is all but a done deal, the draft is filled with questions afterward: will Memphis pick UCONN center Hasheem Thabeet despite his unwillingness to play for the Grizz? Where will magician/point guard Ricky Rubio land? Will the New York Knicks make a big trade to free up more cap space for 2010? There’s only one way to find out: tune into the draft tonight at 8 pm Eastern on ESPN.

Red Wings To Sell Off Game Used Items

Some great news for any hockey memorabilia collectors in the Detroit area, the Red Wings will sell dozens of authentic game used NHL jerseys from this past Stanley Cup Playoffs. Also up for grabs will be sixteen Winter Classic practice hockey jerseys, game worn hockey skates used during the 2009 Western Conference Finals and player-worn shirts, pants, game used sticks and goalie equipment.

The sale will take place this Saturday June 27th at Hockeytown Authentics in Troy, MI.

Orr Game Used Jersey Fetches Over $81k At Auction

Renowned sports memorabilia auction company Classic Auctions recently got hold of a rare hockey game used jersey worn by the one and only Bobby Orr and auctioned it off for just over $81k. Any hockey memorabilia enthusiast would be beyond thrilled to take a rare NHL jersey worn by the great Orr home, but some other great items were auctioned off as well.

A unique St. Patrick’s Day-version Toronto Maple Leafs sweater sold for just under $45k while an ultra-rare Oakland Seals hockey jersey bought in $12k. A Detroit Red Wings 2002 Stanley Cup Championship ring bought in over $20k and an ‘87 Edmonton Oilers ring worn by Moe Lemay took in just under $15k.

Jeter Meets, Dines With Dedicated Upper Deck Collectors

Some cool news from the sports memorabilia industry this morning: five baseball memorabilia collectors who each pieced together a gargantuan 6,661-baseball card set from Upper Deck, met and had lunch with Yankees captain Derek Jeter this past Tuesday June 16th. To “win” the chance to meet the four-time World Champion, each collector put together each card from UD’s massive Yankee Stadium Legacy (6,661 cards) that detail each and every game played at the old Yankee Stadium. After Jeter sat down for a casual Q&A session with the winners over lunch at NYY Steak inside the new Stadium, Jeter chatted and took questions online through Upper Deck’s website for young collectors before giving out some Derek Jeter autographed items and heading into the clubhouse for the day’s game against Washington, a 5-3 victory.

Bryant Jersey Fetches Over $35k

An NBA game used jersey worn by Kobe Bryant during Game 1 of the NBA Finals fetched an amazing $35,270 at auction this past week. The bidding ended last night, with other notable pieces of NBA memorabilia also fetching thousands of dollars. A game used non-signed Lakers jersey from Lamar Odom bought in just over $8k while one worn by Pau Gasol fetched $6760.

The highest selling piece of Magic memorabilia from the Finals was Dwight Howard’s Game 1 jersey, which raked in just over $7500.

Kobe Jersey Ready To Snag Five Digits

Catching up on the Finals’ sports memorabilia auction being held by the NBA, the game used basketball items like Kobe Bryant signed jerseys and some Dwight Howard autographs is nearing its end, with the Bryant jersey from the Lakers’ series-clinching Game 5 poised to take in over $10,000.

This is only the first of at least three auctions the NBA plans to hold for merchandise from the Playoffs and Finals, keep an eye out for Dwight Howard’s actual shoes from Game 1.