What's your favorite Braves gear/memorabilia/ect.?

It’s funny how much I love the game of baseball, but how little of it I actually collect. If anything, I pick up a souvenir baseball with that team’s logo on it whenever I go to a new park, be it Major or Minor league. Some do hats, but if I delved into that foray, then I’d be on the hook for dropping $35 for a NewEra fitted cap every place I go, and more or less no place to put them.

I’ve never been a big card collector to begin with, and I haven’t had a baseball card in decades. I think I still have an autographed Cal Jr. card, as well as an autographed Juwan Howard rookie card (NBA). I have a stack of t-shirts and cheap hats given out at Turner Field that I don’t often wear, as well as several small statues and bobbleheads.

So if anything at all, I’d have to say it’s a tiny collection of autographed baseballs from our Braves; glancing at my shelf, I have guys like Smoltz, Glavine, Chipper, Hanson, Heyward (thanks to 10-4), Francoeur, Kimbrel, Schafer, Cody Johnson, and of all people, Greg Norton. And one non-Brave, in Chan Ho Park. Oddly, I had a dream about meeting Bob Wickman and getting a ball signed by him last night.

As much stuff as I have, it’s really not hard to get it down to a couple things. I have a picture I took of my friend Mike Cather out in the bullpen his first year with the Braves (97) that he signed for me; it’s been in a frame for, what, 13 years and has always had a prominent place wherever I’ve moved to.
Another favorite is a broken bat that AAA catcher Fausto Tejero gave me the last day of the 98 season. It was probably the best year of his career, he was an All-Star, and the worst year, he was relegated to the bench the second half of the year. But he personalized it to me and went out of his way to find me to give it to me.
They’re new, but I got Jason Heyward and Tommy Hanson to sign the covers of the Baseball Americas they were on this past year and I’m going to frame them together. Hopefully those are the stars of our team for the next 15 years.

Now, some of you guys might know, but I have somewhere around 35 thousand signed baseball cards. So, as you can imagine, picking out favorites is a little hard, but of all those thousands, I think my favorites are a few cards signed and very personalized by Joe Winkelsas. Joe is a deeply religious guy and while I’m probably about the exact opposite I’ve always greatly admired the way he chose to use his position to try to bring people to his views. He was open, understanding, and above all happy. Here are some of the cards:

I know my scanner isn’t awesome, so I’ll make sure you know what on each one. (Top Left) “God is right next to us, invisible!” (Top Center) “You have to go through a test, to have a testimony. (Jesus)” (Top Right) “Hosea 4:6” (Bottom Left) “Jer 5:22” (Bottom Center) “Loyal fan!” [with the Tombstone mustache!] (Bottom Right) “God Bless You”
So whether or not I agree with everything he wrote, I definitely appreciate and love the sentiment behind them and these are some of my favorite Braves related memorabilia.

I’ve gathered a rather large collection of Braves memorabilia over the years, with the first i can remember being the 1991 World Series foam tomahawk that still sits on my shelf to this day. I love getting autographs on baseballs, and i’ve gotten some good ones over the years, with some notables being Klesko (tops), Smoltz, Teixeira, Hudson, Heyward, Hanson, Murphy, Diaz, and McCann. Still hoping to get that Chipper auto on a ball one day. I blew it at Fanfest a few years ago by having him sign a card instead. I’ve got 2 jerseys i wear, the Sunday Red and a 1935 Boston Braves Babe Ruth jersey, with the Ruth being my favorite. I also love my Starting Lineup figures of Murphy, Klesko and Chipper. My aunt recently found a handout from the 1966 inaugaral season in my granparens attic that was in great shape that was my dads, it has the entire roster and is pretty cool. I framed it and put it up in the house.

But my bread and butter is collecting autograph and memorabilia cards, and i will classify this as one item, although its a shadow box with my favorite Braves auto/memorabilia cards. This is hands down my favorite Braves item:

Some of the items are hard to see, like the Niekro autograph in the upper right corner. The centered cards that say “BRAVES” and look like they are separate are actually one card that folds up like a book, with a piece of jersey or bat from each player pictured. But to sum, its game-used jerseys/bats of Aaron, Mathews, Spahn, Chipper, and Murphy. Autographs of Chipper, Maddux, Glavine, Niekro, Murphy, and Spahn.

I have a ton of autographed memorabilia, but my favorite is an autographed Beckett Future Stars with Chipper on the cover. I have not collected cards in years. I stopped (coincidentally) when I got married 9 years ago. But I was lucky enough to pull a Lou Brock autograph. He was one of my heroes growing up in STL in the early ’70’s.

Braves autographs: Chipper on a ball and a hat, Hanson on a ball and a bat, Diaz, Redmond, Escobar (ugliest signature ever), eddie perez, glavine, hank aaron, eddie mathews, warren spahn, phil niekro, bobby cox on an actual game-used lineup card, jurrjens, mike gonzalez, o’flaherty, and prado

Other autographs: mike schmidt, al kaline, bob feller, gaylord perry, griffey jr., ripken jr. all on balls

My all-time favorite autograph is a ball signed by Phil Neikro, but my current favorite is Heyward’s autograph on my ’47 Stretch Cooperstown Collection Braves hat.

My favorite Braves item though, is a huge, super-soft, Braves blanket that my g/f made for me.

My favorite thing probably isn’t worth two red cents, but I love the story behind it. I was at a game this past year between the Braves and D-backs, and was hanging out during batting practice. There were about a hundred people scattered all across the right center field wall cause a bunch of the relievers, including Kris Medlen and a few coaches were there catching fly balls. All the kids were yelling “Hey 54! Medlen up here!” and butchering his last name. He got one, and the boy inside me got the best of me and I yelled “Hey Kris, toss that up here man.” He stopped, and turned around and said “You know what, you’re the first person all year to know my name. I’m gonna give it to you.” and turned around and tossed it to me. I looked at all the children and said “You see kids, this is why you obsess.” I felt a little like the Grinch when he beats all those kids in the potato sack race, but I didn’t care.
Aside from that, I’ve got the huge binder of cards from way back in the day, that every once in a while I’ll catch myself adding to. I’ve got two jerseys, a Hank Aaron one for looks, and an old school Chipper for those pick up softball games. I’ve got a few jersey shirts, one of The Phenom, one of Frenchy that I every once in a while I spit on, and a personal one my boy AJCBeat made me to tell me I’d “made the team.” I keep all my ticket stubs and programs. I’ve got a hat for pracitcally every day of the month, and I’m only exaggerating a little, thats the sad thing, bobbleheads, the foam tomahawk, posters, plaques, pennants, and I have two games from the 1995 postseason, including game six of the World Series, on my iPod.

My favorite thing is my Braves Batting Practice Jersey…as it’s the coolest (read not warm) shirt I have and is great for the summer, especially for a hot day at the ballpark.

I’ve got a few favorites, but I can manage to hone it down a bit. I’ve got an ‘82 Murphy road jersey (from ’82, not a throwback) which is my pride and joy. I’ve got a Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz auto’d ball where they all inscribed the years they won the Cy Young… a framed set of auto’d cards by Hanson, Heyward and Freeman that I hope will work out better than the Salty/Andrus/Harrison/Kyle Davies minor league POY ball I have from a few years ago. I recently inherited my grandfather’s 1972 National League All-Star Team auto’d ball, which includes Aaron, Mays and Clemente to name a few… but my favorite would have to be a ticket stub signed by Skip Caray, because of the story behind it. When I was 12, I got the chance to meet him at Turner before a game and was lucky enough to get to talk to him for 5 minutes or so as he walked from the plaza to the door that I assume led to some passage way to the announcing booth. He was genuinely kind, and even sent well wishes to my sick grandmother on the air that night, as he sometimes had the propensity to do for people. It was before he lost all the weight and I remember him being huge. Not fat, necessarily, just someone that I had to crane my neck upwards to talk to. Braves games still aren’t the same without him.

Great stories all around. I’m not really into autographs, but I did get a picture with FYF that I thought was pretty awesome (this was before I hated him) and a picture with Salty. Had a chance to get one with Andruw and McCann before a game but decided to be a nice older brother and let my younger brother go ahead of me. Kicking myself now, because they both had to run after they took one with him and I didn’t get one myself. He doesn’t even appreciate it, that bastard.

Looking forward to my first legit Braves jersey coming in the mail for this season!

i’ve got so many signatures and signed baseball cards, but this card stands out to me. i think because it was my dad’s.

I have a Greg Maddux autographed game-used baseball from the 1995 World Series. It’s still sitting on my desk in a case. I’ll try and get a picture of it sometime soon.

i don’t have much…..but i thought id share what i do have….

i have the honolulu advertiser sports sections from the day after each 95 world series game….one day they’ll be framed and walled up….

Is the “Atlanta Braves Issue” of the AJC from April 10, 1966, framed with one of my grandpa’s old checks from the 60’s, which have Fulton County Stadium printed in the background in all its brand new glory. More sentimental than anything else.

I have a Tom Glavine autographed ball, and he wrote ‘300 wins’ on it.

My dad had it signed back in 1968, the night Hank hit his 500th homerun. After the game he got to go to Hank’s house, as he was having a get together. Hank’s mom worked with his aunt or something. He tells me they watched Bonanza together. Hank signed a couple balls for him and I’ve got one of them. It says, “Best Wishes, Hank Aaron.”