Collector relocates man cave

One of the hardest things for a collector to do is “let go.” As a longtime columnist for SCD, as well as a collector myself, the past year has presented some gut-wrenching decisions for your humble “Stadia Collector.” It’s been a long journey, and I’d like to share it with you.

I began writing for SCD in 1993, at first solely about Stadia — namely, artifacts from long ago (or more recently) demolished ballparks such as seats, signs, or anything else we might deem collectible, some tangible relic that ties us to that park and its history (this before they started tearing stadiums down like every 15 minutes). Later on I branched out, thanks to the latitude given to me by my great SCD editors over the years, writing articles on uniforms, spring training autograph experiences, and even sports movies and plays. But my anchor has always been the ballpark stuff.

I began building my collection in the early ‘80s when I found a pair of Yankee Stadium wooden seats that were being thrown out down the street. They were beat up, but hey, they were the real deal. So I learned, by trial and error, how to restore them (I ended up doing a feature on that, too) and started seeking others, which led to the always fascinating detective work it took in those pre-Internet days, going through microfilm in dusty libraries and contacting historical societies in various cities. I was specifically trying to find what happened to the contents of these “Green Cathedrals”