World Series Press Pins

There is an awful lot of stuff that can be considered memorabilia. Programs, ticket stubs, old soup cans, gum (gum?), movie posters, and of course, bats, balls, caps, jerseys, and autographs. One of the more obscure are press pins, which I've been interested in since 2004.


What is a press pin? It's what identified men as members of the press, and allowed them entrance to World Series games without a ticket. The first press pin was created in 1911 for the Philadelphia Athletics; since 1912, each team in the World Series has commissioned a press pin. Today members of the fourth estate are credentialed in other ways, and the press pin is, well, just a pin that has little intrinsic value.


Unless, of course, you collect them.


I'm no longer sure what caused me to become interested in this little niche area of collecting. I've never been a big autograph hunter, not a jersey collector either. I have some baseballs, but they were gotten the old-fashioned way, either by standing in the bleachers during BP, or by inheriting them (my Dad had an old ball with red and blue seam stitching). Baseball cards? Sure, however, that hobby has gotten just ridiculous over the past 15 years. I have some good cards, some good rookie cards too, but now everything has to be GRADED to get full value for them; and I don't trust the grading companies enough to send them my good cards and get the same card back.


At any rate, I thought the 2004 pin looked pretty cool:



So I picked up one. And that led to a few more. And a few more. After all, the Cardinals have won 17 NL titles.


At this point, I've managed to acquire one pin for each Cardinal World Series from 1964 to the present. Those were reasonably priced.


The rest are for the 9 NL titles from 1926-1946. Those aren't so reasonably priced. Due to the depressed economy, people are forced to part with some of their treasures to raise money, which means more of these pins will come up for sale. Due to the depressed economy, I haven't got the moolah to take advantage of these opportunities. So, the collection may stop here. But it is fun as a way to pass time for me.


Besided, enough ink has been spilled on the latest steroids nonsense, and Kennedy's release has been exhaustively covered by my fellow Cardinal reporters and bloggers. I thought I'd post a 'fluff piece' today for your reading pleasure.