Preserving the Baseball Memories

I have "issues" with collecting and keeping memorabilia from my children due to things from my own childhood. I've kept everything! What will they do with old retainers and eyeglasses?!?!?!

I did a wonderful scrapbook for my son with baseball memories when he graduated from HS. The problem was I had so many things I could never find a finishing point. Because of that, it lies in his room several years later with a stack of stuck still around it.

We have some wonderful videos that a parent did a couple of years. I have lots of pictures, but not nearly enough video. I should have taped more! I did keep some very special baseballs. What do you do with those? We have a couple of things displayed in our home. I have a small framed aerial print of his HS field included with a collection of photos on a table in my dining room. I have a ceramic tile/picture of his HS senior baseball class that was another gift in my living room. I could make my house a shrine to baseball thruthfully! But.... also volleyball, and orthodontia work...... I just don't know what to do with all of the pieces of memories that I've kept.

In speaking about grandparents though, I have some wonderful pieces of grandparents as well as great grandparents. I have a stack of my great grandmother's handerkerchiefs that I want to have laid out in the form of a circle and framed. I saw that somewhere years ago and thought it made a great family heirloom. I'm a complete sucker for those types of things! More than the question of what I'll do with everything is probably what my kids will do with things one day!

I have made binders for each year for college which contains articles, CD's, pictures, etc. LL and travel and HS each have their own but are not year by year.
We have been house hunting and need one extra room that is going to be dedicated to baseball, not just for our own player but all of the MLB memorabilia my husband has collected over the years.
If you really want to get creative, many college bookstores have themed scrapebook kits.
I made a mistake a few years back and gave all of my daughter all of the memorabilia we had accumulated from her, not sure what she has done with it.
I am searching for a large chest where I can place all of sons uniforms old gloves, bats, helmets in along with special memorabilia.
I have a new project I came up with. A baseball tree for son that would include all of the people he has played with when younger that have gone onto play college or professional baseball. He asked me to try to figure out how to keep track of everyone. I haven't figured out how to do it yet, but I will.

Rather than go thru all these gymnastics I keep my memories in my mind--this way I don't need another room in the house or scrapbooks and the memories in my mind stay picture sharp forever

Pictures are framed and hung, balls are mounted and encased, videos compressed on CD's, and other BB equipment labeled and put awaay sealed in vacuum packs for keeping.

But the real good stuff is the action shots hung as posters all over the house.

JMO

I scrapbook. It's fun, but it can be overwhelming!

We have one shelf in son's room for baseball stuff. Trophies, balls, framed photos etc. A couple of retired gloves and bats grace his room too. A lot of things are in a plastic bin under the bed.

We also enlarged several photos and framed them. Those are fun!

I preserve the memories so that my kids can share them with their families one day, just as my mom did the same for her kids.

We currently have my siblings and my senior pictures in separate albums displayed on the entertainment center above our TV. There's four with 8 pictures each and it takes up the entire shelf. My brother will be a senior this year so my parents aren't sure where to put his

They talked about getting a large picture frame and display all of the senior pictures in that one frame. We'll see.

Depending on the time of year, we've got jerseys hanging in our living room. During baseball season, my dad puts out the various baseball jerseys he's collected: Cardinals, Gateway Grizzlies, various WHS jerseys, etc. During football season, we've got Rams, Cowboys, Illinois, my WHS jersey our Booster Club gives us. In the winter, he'll sometimes display a few basketball jerseys.

In a few years, I have a feeling my parents will have a room in this house dedicated to our high school careers.

Does anyone know where to find nice, inexpensive jersey frames?

The ones I find online are so expensive. I'd love to display a couple of my son's favorite jerseys.

I saw some do-it yourself Jersey Frames at Michaels Craft stores a few months ago. I think they were about $90. Not cheap, however compared to the $200+ frames I had found before it wasn't bad.

BP,

I would think that with a name like jerseydad, this guy knows what he's talking about.

I really love this stuff! The treasures we found in our parents' house after they were gone were stunning to us. So many things...old cards, photos, school pictures, newspaper articles, etc... that we found quickly became the most favorite things I now own.

We try hard to preserve as much as we can...especially photos and that has gotten easier with digital. But we have Mother's Day cards, birthday cards, early writings, baseball, bats, jerseys, newspaper clippings, etc..., etc...

Some is stored in boxes, some is hanging on the walls of their rooms or our game room. Its invaluable to us and hopefully to our kids someday.

But I have to tell you this ?cute? story...our youngest son and his younger sister were recently in the game room and my wife overheard the following conversation.

Son: "When Mom and Dad are gone, I get that and that and this."

Daughter: "No <brothers_name>! We will have to sell all of this stuff to pay for their funerals!"

YIKES!

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
Rather than go thru all these gymnastics I keep my memories in my mind--this way I don't need another room in the house or scrapbooks and the memories in my mind stay picture sharp forever

What if the memory blows in that computer? I agree though. I've seen parents view their kids lives through a lens rather than live. Besides, if we record everything, the 340 shot down the line can never turn into a 450 shot over the centerfield fence.

We have most of those things as well.

Luckily my stepmom owns a frame shop and did some jerseys for free. I did a photo collage of my son's young history for his Sr. grad.

Someday, I hope to put the video clips together and make a movie. And, I really hope that I can sell it to a major studio.

I hope that we can keep adding to these treasures.

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:
Besides, if we record everything, the 340 shot down the line can never turn into a 450 shot over the centerfield fence.

Hello?!? Aren't home run stories a lot like fish stories!!!