Not long ago, I decided to look into my baseball souvenir collection and find some worthy objects to display. At its best, baseball is sunshine, green grass, a smooth infield, the white chalky baselines, and the beautiful uniforms worn on the field. It's also magnificent stadiums, seats of a variety of colors, and lots of fresh air, not to mention hot dogs, saurkraut, peanuts and lots of other delicious food found at the ballpark. I hope these images help bring those or similar thoughts into your mind. There's nothing like a ballgame.

I saw my first game at Ebbets Field in 1952. The Dodgers and the Reds. Below is an actual Dodger scorecard from that year, the great Brooklyn Dodger lineup in that scorecard, and a ticket stub from one of the games during that season.

Over the years, I have managed to collect a variety of autographed photos of Dodgers and other players. Below is a photo of Mike Piazza when he was with the Albuquerque Dukes of the PCL. The day Piazza signed the photo for me at a baseball card store in Albuquerque, NM, was the day before he was called up to the Dodgers to begin his tremendous baseball career.

Despite the fact that I'm a Dodger fan and have been so since 1952, I grew up in the Bronx, about a mile from Yankee Stadium. And I saw a lot of games there. So, the Yankees made a big impact on my baseball fan experience. Here are a couple of souvenirs, including an amusing bumper sticker about Billy Martin who seemed to come and go with the Yankees, and an autographed photo by the great Mickey Mantle. My wife obtained that autograph when Mantle came to a baseball souvenir shop in Connecticut.

My late brother, Gil, was in the advertising business. Many years ago he did a job pushing cigars with the great Dodger shortstop Maury Wills. Here's a photo of Maury, followed by the Polaroid taken at the advertising gig plus Maury's signature and note on the back.