Babe Ruth appropriately put an indelible stamp on the inaugural All-Star Game in 1933 at Comiskey Park by hitting the first home run in All-Star Game history — a two-run shot off the Cardinals' Wild Bill Hallahan in the third inning of a 4-2 victory for the American League. But it's lesser known that Cubs pitcher Lon Warneke hit the first triple in All-Star Game history — a hit to right field in the bottom of the sixth inning — and scored the first National League run in All-

Michael Jordan has been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated's weekly issue 50 times — more than any athlete in the 72-year history of the magazine. But it actually took him awhile to get on the cover for the first time. Jordan should have been on the Nov. 30, 1981 cover with North Carolina teammates James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Jimmy Black and Matt Doherty as a ballyhooed freshman starter for the preseason No. 1-ranked Tar Heels. But coach Dean Smith did not allow fresh

The grandaddy of them all. You know a Monopoly game is vintage when the hotels and houses are made of wood! The classic 1960s/1970s version of Monopoly. All-Star Baseball was a classic board game of the 1960s — not only fun to play with the spinner and strategy, but it used Wrigley Field as it's background. Through the magic of baseball-reference.com, this background shot was taken on Aug. 21, 1968. That's Fergie Jenkins pitching to Braves left fielder Mike Page in the top of

The '69 Cubs have their own special place in baseball's Hall of Infamy — a team still beloved if not revered despite a horrific collapse that ruined the greatest summer of our lives. Do the 1964 Phillies or 1978 Red Sox get the same kind of love that the '69 Cubs get? Probably not. Despite the scars of that dreaded finish, the glory of the 1969 season can't be forgotten, or ignored. Why? Timing was everything. The Cubs had not won a pennant since 1945 and had not been in cont

Chicago was the pinball machine capital of the world in the 1940s-70s. Many of the leading pinball manufacturers — including Gottlieb, Williams, Chicago Coin, Bally and Stern — were based in Chicago in pinball's heyday. It was an ironic distinction, because pinball had been illegal in Chicago since the 1940s, as a gambling device that attracted organized crime. Pinball, in fact, was also illegal in many suburbs (Oak Park, Arlington Heights, Evanston, Des Plaines and others)

NFL draft savant Joel Buchsbaum was the nerd's nerd. He looked the part, sounded the part and played the part. He was as reclusive as he was brilliant, with an encyclopedic recall of NFL draft prospects — the only thing I ever heard him talk about. His cramped apartment in Brooklyn was part of his legend. When he first started writing for Pro Football Weekly, they say he submitted his copy in longhand — he did not have a computer — and I believe it. I first heard Buchsbaum on

Subscription issues are the ugly stepchild of magazine collecting. They're the heart and soul of almost any vintage Sports Illustrated collection. But with the advent of grading, pressing and a burgeoning investment-level market for sports magazines, newsstand issues are rightfully king. And not just because of supply (by most accounts, only about 3% of weekly issues of Sports Illustrated magazines were newsstand issues), but aesthetics. I've collected raw issues of SI since

From the White Sox' glorious 1977 season, when they were second in the American League with 192 home runs (Richie Zisk 31, Oscar Gamble 30, Eric Soderholm 25; Chet Lemon 19; Lamar Johnson/Jim Spencer combined for 36). The Sox faded in August and September to finish 90-72 — in third place, 12 games behind the Royals (following the lead of the Cubs, who were 47-22 on June 28 and finished 81-81 to land in fourth place, 20 games behind). I think I bought this knockoff t-shirt at

PSA's entry into magazine grading in 2025 predictably has added a spark to the growing graded-magazine hobby. With its name recognition and dominant presence in the sports card market, it's no surprise that PSA made an early inroad on CGC's hold on magazine grading, But its early impact has been significant enough to wonder if it has won the war already. Even in the early going in 2026, PSA-graded magazines are consistently (but not always) selling at a premium over similar i

Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's all-time home run record with his 715th on April 8, 1974. I love history. And I love documenting history. So when I wasn't playing All-Star Baseball or Bas-ket when I was in high school, I was keeping crude scrapbooks from the sports pages of the Sun-Times. Just a bound book of construction paper, a pair of scissors and some double-sided tape and I was good to go. It's as much fun to look back on these 50 years later as it was to put them together

When I moved from the South Side to Lincolnwood at age 8 in 1967, one of my first friends at Rutledge Hall was the daughter of Jack Rosenberg, was the longtime sports editor of WGN. The Rosenbergs had a really cool basement, with all sorts of sports memorabilia. The highlight — for me anyway — was Jack's glass-topped office desk, which was covered with a collage of press passes he had accumulated through years of traveling while covering events for WGN Sports. The legendary a

PSA entered the comic/magazine grading market as not just any newcomer. On the contrary, with its dominant share of the card-grading market and well-oiled grading machinery in full swing, the anticipation that PSA would provide a much-needed boost to the graded-magazine hobby was palpable. This was like Coca-Cola entering the bottled-water market or Honda making snow blowers more than Donruss challenging Topps in the baseball card market. So for graded magazine collectors, g

This one's painful. It's an original Sun-Times photo from Michael Jordan's NBA debut against the Washington Bullets in 1984 — up for...

New York Daily News newspaper with coverage of the Beas' 14-10 victory over the Giants in the 1963 NFL Championship Game. George Halas's...

When the White Sox acquired slugger Dick Allen from the Dodgers for left-handed pitcher Tommy John, his reputation as a volatile,...

PSA's much-anticipated entry into the magazine grading business will become reality on July 14, when the card-grading giant begins...

The Chicagoland Antique Advertising, Slot Machine & Jukebox Show is too long of a name for a collectibles show but not long enough at the...

To-sell-or-not generally isn't a critical decision with vintage collectibles. With a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle or a 1968 Topps wax pack,...

Finding vintage newsstand Sports Illustrated magazines has — predictably — become more and more difficult with the popularity of sports...

The baseball card boom was still a few years away in 1983, but that wasn't exactly the stone age of collecting. Fleer and Donruss...