A common refrain on social media and beyond when seeing a historic piece of memorabilia is it belongs in a museum, not a private collection. Often, the Baseball Hall of Fame’s museum is name-checked.
While there are certainly plenty of items from baseball’s storied history which remain in private hands, the museum in Cooperstown, New York, is home to tens of thousands of items telling the most important stories in the sport. From Willie Mays’ glove from “The Catch” to Roberto Clemente’s cap from his 3,000th and final career hit.
But unlike most museums and private collectors, particularly those with a collection nearly as comprehensive and valuable as the museum at the Hall, the museum’s senior curator Tom Shieber is tasked with acquiring items and curating exhibits using solely donations and loans.
“What isn’t really a possibility is purchasing an object,” said Shieber, explaining the institution was founded with a creed never to pay individuals or institutions for objects.
“Most museums actually do have an acquisitions budget, where they will acquire objects by purchase,” Shieber said. “But that's one that doesn't occur here.”
Despite acquiring all its pieces via donation or loan, the collection has had no issue growing. It doesn’t hurt that the Hall has been at it for so many years, predating the notion of memorabilia as an asset class. On the day Babe Ruth’s jersey was retired in 1948, the Hall of Fame acquired it and has kept it ever since.
The process for acquiring a new piece often begins first with ideation for an exhibit.
“We might have a general idea of doing some sort of an exhibit about it,” Shieber said. “Might be a one word concept, maybe two words.”
From there, the work begins. The team works closely with other parts of the organization such as its library and archives.
“I think people would be very surprised by how much time and effort is put into these things well ahead of time,” said Shieber, describing how the team works fastidiously to pour over every word, ensuring they are phrasing something as precisely as possible to remain true to the mission of the exhibit.
“It's not like someone says, ‘Let's do an exhibit about baseball board games,’ and then you just start picking board games and typing up labels. A lot more thought goes into it. It's a form of storytelling,” Shieber said, going on to compare the work to that of artists creating narrative works.
“I don't think anyone would imagine that a movie director would just have an idea and just start shooting, or that the author of a book would just start typing away. There's obviously a lot of work done on the front end to really think things through, how you want to tell the story.”
Storytelling is at the core of the operation. It shapes every decision.
Speaking about a recent exhibit called “The Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball,” Shieber explained developing the concept from scratch. “In a lot of ways, what we're not doing, is just as important as what we're doing, so that's also very, very critical, to stay on message.”
Not only are items often refused by the museum — with a gracious “thank you” — due to a piece not matching a storytelling effort, but due diligence to ensure authenticity is a must, resulting in further denials.
While the attention to detail remains paramount, there is still so much to juggle. “A lot of things are happening all at once,” Shieber said. “As we develop a concept, we look at what we have that can help tell that story.”
Scouring databases and physical archives, a mini audit of sorts takes place, aiming to find exactly how the collection could fit into a new idea for an exhibit.
But sometimes they find not all stories are a fit, whether due to a lack of artifacts capable of aiding in the storytelling or an inability to source necessary items.
“We could sort of dream up the perfect object. But how do you find that?”
As Shieber put it: “There's not a 1-800 number you call up.”
Instead, Hall curators check with their network, hoping to find someone with a lead on a piece they need for an exhibit. Often, that comes in the form of a loan.
“Oftentimes, we know something would be great to add to this exhibit or that exhibit,” Shieber said. “‘Oh, we really need to have this in order to better the history of baseball or better serve researchers who come our way in order to fill holes in a collection.’”
With loans versus donations, there’s a certain level of additional scrutiny. “We don’t just want to be a storage facility for someone else’s objects,” Shieber explained, adding it is imperative loans are accepted for use in a very specific purpose or public-facing exhibit.”
The collection isn’t merely limited to players in the Hall of Fame, or even from the MLB. “We like to talk about the entire history of the game and the impact on the game,” Shieber said.
“We collect baseball items and documents and all sorts of multimedia,” he said. Often, the baseball connection is obvious. Other times, it’s not so straightforward. It might not have a tie to a game on the diamond, but maybe it’s something off the field that adds color to the rich tapestry of baseball history preserved by the museum.
“Maybe we're collecting an object that's related to a fan and a fan experience. Maybe we're collecting items related to sportswriters,” Shieber said. "Maybe it’s an object relating to the collecting hobby.”
How about when it comes to the actual nuts and bolts of getting items in the doors?
Shieber wouldn’t give away much, though said it generally comes in the form of a request from someone who owns the piece already.
“Whether it’s to a collector or to a major-league club, we’ll say, ‘Hey this is an interesting story that we would love to be able to tell, and that object would help us do that.’”
Then it’s up to the collectors to decide whether they are interested. Given the limitations faced due to the anti-paid acquisition clause, that’s about as far as the team can go.
That’s not to say there is a shortage of willing collectors happy to loan their memorabilia to the museum.
Kohl’s co-founder Jay Baker, who owns one of the most significant collections of Yankees memorabilia outside of Cooperstown, was overjoyed to loan his collection to the museum for an exhibition. Among the items featured were more than 100 artifacts, highlighted by Babe Ruth’s earliest-known game-used bat, Mickey Mantle’s first professional contract, Don Larsen’s jersey worn during the 1956 World Series in which he pitched the only perfect game in the Fall Classic’s history, as well as the contract which sold Ruth from the Red Sox to the Yankees.
Speaking to Shieber in the days between Ohtani’s 50th home run and its subsequent appearance at Goldin Auctions, it seemed like exactly the type of piece the museum would be requesting.
Shieber wasn’t willing to tip his hand, saying the Hall would “see what happens.” Whether or not there was an attempt made to secure the ball, it was not something Shieber was interested in sharing. “I’m not gonna discuss what’s going on right now.”
But for past acquisitions, like the scorecard from the August game in which Danny Jansen became the first player to appear for both teams in a single game, the acquisition strategy was in full force. Once it became clear it was possible Jansen could make history, after being traded between teams prior to the rescheduled game, discussions began in earnest.
Bob Ellis, who served as official scorer on both dates, donated his scorecard to the Hall of Fame.
Danny Jansen became the first player to appear for both teams in the same game – batting for Toronto when play was stopped June 26 and catching for Boston upon Monday's resumption.
— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum ⚾ (@baseballhall) August 26, 2024
Bob Ellis, who served as official scorer on both dates, donated his scorecard to the Hall of Fame. pic.twitter.com/S8nFTlMeH1
Milestones are predictable in most cases. It’s as simple as pulling up Baseball Reference to see who might be closing on a 3,000th hit or 300th home run. But not everything can be planned, like a perfect game. In those cases, the timeline is compressed, with the request sent out much quicker.
Rapid texting commences for sudden moments like this, with employees placing their own arguments for or against, often late into the night.
One of the off-field categories are collectibles.
“The collecting hobby, you know, almost in there's so many different topics that connect to baseball,” Shieber said.
The Hall has a T206 Honus Wagner, a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 6 and even a Bryce Harper postseason helmet.
But the Hall looks at collectibles quite differently from most.
Shieber points to the monetary and sentimental drivers which fuel collectors and notes the museum takes a different tact.
“Neither of those are reasons that the Hall of Fame collect,” he said.
Value is not a concern since there is no cash spent to begin with, and the items are never sold. Though Shieber admits he is personally sentimental about baseball (“How can you not be romantic…?”), that doesn’t play into his curation.
“We're collecting because the value we place on that item is not monetary. It is storytelling and research value,” he said. “The reasons that collectors collect and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum collects are quite different.”
As stewards of the game in its tangible form, everything comes back to that storytelling component.
As the museum is in constant flux, from one exhibition to the next, the collection is always growing and changing. Plus, there are always reasons to make the next acquisition.
“We're constantly thinking about adding to our collection,” said Shieber. “It's not stagnant. It's ever growing, ever changing.”
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.