Put me in coach! Landry's Fedora(!) part of October Sports Auction

Sept. 2, 2009

Posted by Noah

In the second episode of the eighth season of The Simpsons, "You Only Move Twice," Homer is offered a job at The Globex corporation, working for a seemingly benign boss, Hank Scorpio, in the bucolic little burg of Cypress Creek. It turns out Scorpio is bent on world domination, but that takes a backseat to Homer's problems concerning his family's homesickness for Springfield. In fact, I'm getting choked up thinking about it...

It's one of my favorite episodes for many reasons, not the least of which is that Homer manages to do what so many great supervillains have not managed to do in more than 40 years; that is, stop James Bond. "I stopped a a slacker at work today," Homer tells his dejected family.

What I really love this episode for, besides Albert Brooks' awesome voicing of Scorpio ("You have 72 hours to deliver the gold!") and remedial kid Gordy in Bart's class who is in the class for no other reason than he is Canadian and speaks with an accent (I'm laughing as I write this just thinking about it) is that Homer, in order to motivate his workers to get the nuclear reactor online in time reveals to Scorpio that he has always dreamed of coaching the Dallas Cowboys, and subsequently buys a Tom Landry signed fedora for use as a motivational tool. Hilarity ensues...

All of that is a long way to get to the fact that you can have your own Homer/Scorpio moment this fall as a Tom Landry game-worn fedora, sported regally on the sidelines of Texas stadium during the 1980s by the legendary Dallas Cowboys coach, will be up for auction as part of the Oct. 1-2 Signature® Sports Memorabilia Auction.

The hat is just part of an impressive trove of Cowboys' memorabilia that will certainly have die-hards of America's Team keenly attuned to the early October event at Heritage's Uptown Dallas headquarters. Tom Landry represents everything hallowed about the glory days of the 1970s Cowboys and there was no symbol more emblematic of those amazing '70s teams than Landry's iconic fedora.

Along with Coach Landry's stylish 7-3/8s Churchill, Ltd. Gray hat, Heritage will also be offering a 1970s-era Coach Landry game-used clipboard complete with handwritten plays and coaching whistle, making a complete suite of game-used Landry memorabilia and an enticing grouping for any coach or fan aspiring to the greatness achieved by Dallas's favorite head coach.

A game-used jersey worn by Roger Staubach and an early 1990s game-used uniform from Troy Aikman - easily the two most-beloved Dallas Cowboy quarterbacks - are being offered in compliment to the Landry lots, and will be yet another reason for Cowboy fans to keep a close eye on the early October auction.

The Staubach jersey is from the early '70s. It's a version of the dark blue uniform worn by the cowboys mostly as road-jerseys during that part of the decade. My mother always insisted that the Cowboys would lose when they wore those jerseys, and I don't remember her being wrong. Ever. Since the dark blue jerseys were worn with much less frequency than the home white there is much less wear and tear on this shirt than you might otherwise find, which makes it all the more desirable.

Troy Aikman's circa 1992 game-used uniform comes to Heritage in fantastic shape and is a hard-to-find relic from the beginning of the 1990s Cowboy dynasty, of which Aikman was arguably the biggest part. Aikman may well be the one Cowboy player able to rival Staubach in terms of fan adoration. This uniform bears the battle scars of those intense 1990s-era battles that saw the team dominate like no other.

Yes, you too can own a Landry hat and motivate your employees like Homer did. If, by wearing it, you can help your employer take over the world, then good for you! You'll probably benefit greatly from your actions, though I can't guarantee that you'll be given - as Scorpio rewarded Homer - the Denver Broncos. I can guarantee, however, that, just like Homer, you'll be equally disappointed it's not the Cowboys...

Marge: I think the Denver Broncos are pretty good...

Homer: Oh... You don't understand.

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-Noah Fleisher

140 years later Red Stockings still rule!

Feb. 13, 2009
Posted by Noah

Friday the 13th… Ooooh. Scary stuff. If you see an Axe wielding, mask-wearing murderer and hear creepy music today here’s a word of advice: Don’t go into the house! I repeat: Don’t go into the house! It’s also my daughter’s third birthday today, so if you see her coming toward you then simply shield your eyes from the unbearable cuteness…

By now most of us – at least in this business – are familiar with the story of Bernice Gallego, a Fresno area antiques dealer who stumbled across an 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings baseball card in a shoe box in her shop – she’s actually mostly an eBay dealer these days, as most former brick-and-mortar dealers are. Anyway, she sold the card, via eBay, just yesterday – Feb. 12 – and it brought just more than $64,000. Not a bad payday for most of us. For Mrs. Gallegos, however, it’s a relative blip, considering she once hit a $250,000 jackpot on the slots in Vegas. Some gals have all the luck.

Anyway, she has maintained a great sense of humor throughout this whole thing, as evidenced by this story in today’s Fresno Bee. For our purposes, however, I once more turned to our Director of Sports, Chris Ivy, for his expert analysis. As always, I appreciate Chris being so sanguine about me bothering him.

I have to mention that we sold one of these things last May – 2008, that is – for $22,705, and from what I can tell it was in better shape than the one in Fresno. Read about it here.

HA Blog: Is the $64,000+ price ultimately paid for the card – minus Buyer’s Premium – fair?

CHRIS: Based on the condition of the card and what similar examples have sold for, the card sold for well above market. This proves how widespread exposure for auctions can lead to huge prices. In this particular case, the auction house for this item did not develop this exposure, but were the beneficiaries, along with the owner. Heritage works to develop exposure for our auctions every day through Heritage Magazine, blogs, press releases, online and trade advertisements, etc. (If you’re looking to consign some valuable collectibles, hint hint! - Noah)

HA Blog: Would it have sold for more if the economy were better – or if it was sold through a different auction company? Say one with 425,000+ registered bidder-members, and whose initials were – arbitrarily, HA?

CHRIS: It’s hard to say, I believe that the card was maximized due to the publicity that it received through the AP stories and the owner’s appearance on The Tonight show with Jay Leno. The winning bidder is part of a company that likely purchased the card at an above market price simply for the free exposure they got with the follow up stories in the mainstream press, similar to the gambling Web sites that have previously purchased grilled cheese sandwiches on eBay with the likeness of religious figures on them for tens of thousands of dollars. (Hey! That Velveeta Moses was totally worth it! – Noah)

HA Blog: Where do the 1869 Red Stockings lay in the pantheon of great baseball teams?

CHRIS: Honestly, the significance of the 1869 Red Stockings lay entirely in their pioneering status. While they were dominating for their era, there really aren’t any historians who would mention them in the same breath as the 1920s Yankees or the early 20th century Cubs, for example. There just wasn’t enough organized competition at that time to make an apples-to-apples comparison. But George and Harry Wright, both Hall of Famers in the “Pioneers” section of Cooperstown, who founded this first professional baseball team, were as essential to the development of the game as the other Wright Brothers were to aviation. So if “greatness” was calculated on the basis of historical importance as opposed to quality of play, then the 1869 Red Stockings would rank at the top.

Very nicely put. Thanks Chris!