Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Oddball Orioles Stuff #2




Have you ever found something stashed away in your collection and not only have no clue where it came from but not even know what it was?

That's how it was with this Jim Palmer item. It looked like some sort of bookmark. On the front is the picture and text promoting the Donnelley Yellow Pages with a reference to codes to use with an information 'hotline'. You could get O's ticket info, scores, etc. The text is applied to a peel off sticker I'm guessing was meant to be stuck on your (land line) phone. 

The back has a flowery bio and highlights of Palmer's career. The 'card' has two horizontal folds but they looked to be not part of the original design. I don't know where I got it but it likely came from my aunt who lived in Baltimore and liked to send my O's stuff she came across.

The thing puzzled me. I couldn't think of what the origins might be. I looked at it a few times and had it laying on my desk for a couple of months and then I finally decided to try to find something on the 'net.

After a couple of attempts I tried googling "Donnelley Yellow Pages Jim Palmer" and the first hit answered my  questions. There was an eBay auction for a "JIM PALMER HALL of FAME PIN - rare -" that went on to describe the item as a stadium giveaway. The below picture (which I took from the listing) shows the 'card' and a pin of some sort (it's very hard to distinguish in the crappy photo) commemorating the H-o-F election of the Oriole righthander. Here is the text of the listing:

The pin is gold in color shows PALMER 22 ORIOLES with HALL OF FAME running vertically on both sides.  A clasp is on the back. Can be worn as a lapel pin, tie tack or sweater pin.

No date is given but logic would lead me to believe that it was issued at a game at Memorial Stadium later in the 1990 season (he was a member of that year's class) or, more likely, sometime in 1991. Here is the picture from the listing. The pin and card are still in the plastic packaging. My card doesn't show a 'pinhole' so I guess the pin is loose in the package.



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Well this isn't as earth-shattering as discovering a previously unknown t206 card but at least my curiosity is satisfied. I've got a fair sized pin collection and I'd like to add this one but 1) I already have a couple of Palmer pins and 2) $10 plus shipping is more than I'm going to pay for something I can't even get a good look at.

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