Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Grey Flannel Auctions: The Orel Hershiser Collection- 1988

I always find it hard to believe a former Baseball star would sell any portion of their personal collection.  After all, the memorabilia accumulated over a career are like a photo album of your life.  How can you just let it go?

Obviously, financial issues can be a concern, but I don't that's the issue here.  Other times, the player just might not have much of an attachment to those things (i.e. the Kirk Gibson Collection sold last year).  In this case, however that's obviously not the case.  Orel Hershiser is known as active sports memorabilia collector, and the items he consigned to Grey Flannel Auctions supports that notion.  No, the reason why the Bulldog is selling has everything to do with being a collector.  Every collector, at some point, takes stock of everything they have accumulated and determines that maybe they should pare it down a bit.  Hershiser is obviously at that point in his hobby.

So, for your enjoyment check out just a handful of the items he has on auction below. There are over 60 items from his collection for sale, so I'll probably follow up this post in the next few days with more items from his collection not highlighted here.  BTW, all of the items below focus on the magical 1988 season.

Yes, this is what you think it is.  Here is Orel Hershiser's actual glove that he used during the 1988 season.  The Bulldog wore this when he broke the consecutive scoreless innings streak, and during the World Series later on that season.  From the auction description:
In 1988, Orel put together one of the best single season pitching performances in baseball history. He led the league in wins, innings, and complete games, finishing the season with a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings pitched, breaking the mark held by former Dodger Don Drysdale. (He would then add 8 more scoreless innings in his next start-Game 1 of the NLCS, but the postseason innings do not count toward the record.) He also won his first Gold Glove and was unanimously selected as the Cy Young Award winner with a record of 23–8 and a 2.26 ERA. This glove was worn during that historic record setting 59 consecutive scoreless innings streak of 1988 as well as during the 1988 postseason where Orel led his Dodgers to a World Championship.

This 1988 artifact is Hershiser's game-used World Series jersey.  Please, someone needs to buy this stuff and put it in a museum.


This is Hershiser's 20th win Baseball from 1988.  Wow, just awesome.  Please note that this isn't the only Baseball from 1988 he has for sale.  You can also bid on a Baseball used during the game in which he broke the scoreless innings streak, here.  On top of that, as noted by Keith Olbermann, Orel had put up the actual ball used to break the scoreless streak record, but had sellers remorse and took it off the auction block.  See Olbermann's story about that, here.

This is the Bulldog's World Series batting helmet.  All of these 1988 items need to be grouped together in a nice display at a Dodger Stadium museum. 

Here is one of the lesser awards he won during his incredible 1988 season.  Obviously, Hershiser is keeping the big awards, like the Cy Young, that he won in 1988.  This is the 1988 Sports Magazine World Series MVP Award.

Here is something that would be absolutely fascinating to read through.  This is Orel's scouting report from the 1988 World Series.  Go here to see a handful of pages.  They have a zoom function that allows you to read a few pages.


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