Curator, Collector or Hustler?

[cjw]

it seems like everyone these days is opening up their own sports museum so it's high time i realize my dream as well. at the tender age of 4, i had a religious experience in which the ghost of tony fernandez appeared before me and told me i must gather 2 of every blue jays jersey in existance and open a museum. behold, the first physical prototype for the "Blue Jays Immortals Megalopolis":



(* does not convey full grandiose stature due to the fact that i had to use graham crackers.)

here is an artist's concept of how it will look when i open it on 165 acres of the finest Bahamian property:

Ownership: 100% me
Funding: 100% you
Source of collection: destitute widows of former players. have just purchased a 1974 el camino expressly for these travels. Have named it the "Carpetbagger Cruiser". have replaced the hood ornament with a silouette of an elderly widow in crosshairs.

for those of you concerned that i may be ripping some folks off here, let me assure you that i'm actually paying for these items via gifts i've made. for example, when i finally procure josh gibson's 1937 homestead grays jersey, i will in turn give his family a picture of josh that i've glued to some plywood (or particle board. whatever's on sale at home depot that week).

rudy.

Rudy..your post is great! Love the cracker-shack! I would like to be the first to pony up the $49.99 admission fee.

[frikativ54]

GW -

FUNNY THING... life imitating art... Have you ever been to the Nike Campus in Beaverton, OR? More specifically, the Nolan Ryan building?

The reason I ask is you could see a piece done by this man (whose name escapes me currently!):



Who built THIS Nolan Ryan Statue from items in Nolan's garage and stuff he was going to throw out...





Hope you enjoy it!!!

- Chris

Chris,

That's absolutely sick! The first house I was taken home to as an infant was in Beaverton, OR. Now I go to school at Reed College here in Portland. Do they accept visitors and/or give public tours? I could make the trek there and then report back to you guys at GUU...

[lund6771]

in some cases, it doesn't even seem like he offers much in return other than some pie-in-the-sky story about a museum that he's been trying to build for the past 35+ years. donate your item, to my personal collection, and one day it'll be in a museum! i think robert hit the nail on the head when he described it as a suspension of morality for the sake of personal collecting. the whole thing has the stench of a late night infomercial complete with bombastic claims.

rudy.

being in construction contracting, I would guess that this is EASILY a 50-100 million dollar project...and in Boca Roton, maybe even more

Hell will be freezing over before this thing is ever built

To me it's pretty obvious he is tricking athletes to donate these items to a museum that is never getting built....I wonder which auction house will get this "collection"

[xpress34]

Chris,

That's absolutely sick! The first house I was taken home to as an infant was in Beaverton, OR. Now I go to school at Reed College here in Portland. Do they accept visitors and/or give public tours? I could make the trek there and then report back to you guys at GUU...

Les -

I'm not sure. I haven't worked for Nike since about 2004, so I don't know what their current policy is. I do know they use to have a Visitor Center and such... you could probably find a number for the Nike Campus from information and call them directly.

BTW - I believe the artist's name is Leo Sewell.

All the best -

Chris

[Mr.3000]

GW -

FUNNY THING... life imitating art... Have you ever been to the Nike Campus in Beaverton, OR? More specifically, the Nolan Ryan building?

The reason I ask is you could see a piece done by this man (whose name escapes me currently!):



Who built THIS Nolan Ryan Statue from items in Nolan's garage and stuff he was going to throw out...





Hope you enjoy it!!!

- Chris

Looks like he built that shirt out of stuff Nolan was throwing away as well.