Following up on that post about the autographed Derek Jeter baseballs is a link to another story about how memorabilia is pretty much awful. The story involves a deceased father’s extensive autographed baseball collection and the fight to inherit it by his two adult-yet-totally-childish sons, each of whom claims ownership.
The dead father, by the way, was on the board of the Chicago White Sox, so proximity to ballplayers meant that this is a big, big collection.
The worst thing about all of this, however, is not the fight between the sons. Nor is it about the peril of improper estate planning. No, the worst thing about it is how one of the sons’ thefts of autographed baseballs was explained via a totally gratuitous swipe at Ray Durham, who I always kinda liked:
A closer look revealed that someone had taken another ball and secretly replaced it with a ball signed by Ray Durham, a former second baseman for the White Sox and other teams. Durham is a friend of the Pogofsky family, but his career .277 batting average did not merit his autographed ball sitting among balls signed by the game’s most legendary players.
The Durham ball “is worth, like $5,” Benjamin Pogofsky said.
Ray Durham, thankfully, could not be reached for comment.
