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Going to bat for history

Marshall Fogel stands in a display room adorned with historic wooden bats covering the walls.
Carly Rose
/
Rocky Mountain PBS
Marshall Fogel has one of the most complete sports memorabilia collections in the country. He said his collection tells the history of baseball, and he wants to share that history with others.

Like many young boys in the 1950s, Denver native Marshall Fogel grew up collecting baseball cards. Unlike most of those other boys, he never stopped.

Today, he owns the most valuable card in the hobby: a mint-condition 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle. That card, which Fogel calls “the holy grail,” is just the beginning of his impressive collection.

Fogel’s collection is considered one of the most complete sports memorabilia collections in the country.

A white striped New York Yankees jersey sits on a mannequin with a black cap on top.
Carly Rose
/
Rocky Mountain PBS.
A Derek Jeter signed uniform and game-use glove. Hall of Famer Jeter won five World Series with the New York Yankees during his 20-year career from 1995 to 2014.

Over the course of 35 years, he’s collected game-use bats and baseballs, original photographs, game tickets, uniforms and even a piece of the original Yankees Stadium, to name a few.

Fogel, 82, began seriously collecting in 1989 after attending the National Sports Collector Convention in Chicago. It was around that time that the hobby began to grow into the industry it is today. Many collectors, including Fogel, were still figuring out what was authentic and valuable.

As Fogel’s collection grew, so did his knowledge about how and what to collect.

“Through the years, people would write articles about what was worth collecting, what was authentic, what was restored,” Fogel said. “People that were experts, like collectors like myself, were able to mentor the industry.”

Original photographs and game-used bats make up a significant chunk of Fogel’s collection. He was on the forefront of collectors interested in these items.

A vintage baseball card shows a young man's portrait with a gray jacket on that reads "Pittsburgh."
Carly Rose
/
Rocky Mountain PBS
A 1909 T-206 Honus Wagner baseball card. Wagner, considered one of the best players of all time, put a stop to the card’s production because the cards were included in cigarette packs, and he didn’t want to encourage children to smoke.

Some collectors build their collections vertically, meaning they dive deep into a specific team or type of item. Fogel said he collects horizontally, looking for items across teams and eras that document the sport’s history.

“I would skim the top. I'd collect important baseball bats, uniforms, photographs. My collection is really the history of baseball,” Fogel said. “I had the ability to (do that) because there weren’t a lot of people collecting the way I felt it was worth collecting because I always thought it would be valuable, not just necessarily monetarily, but historically.”

The tip of a dark wooden baseball bat positioned on a stand with the words "Trademark George 'Babe' Ruth" engraved on it.
Carly Rose
/
Rocky Mountain PBS
Babe Ruth’s game-use baseball bat, used from 1925 to 1931. In 1927, Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in the season, setting a record that would stand for the next 34 years.

Fogel has worked with several museums to exhibit parts of his collection, including the Denver Art Museum, the New York Yankees Museum and the History Colorado Center. He also displayed some of his collection at the 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game hosted at Coors Field in Denver. That exhibit included the 1952 Mickey Mantle card, guarded by the Denver Police Department’s S.W.A.T. team.

Fogel grew up watching the Denver Bears, a farm team of the New York Yankees, and he’s a proud Rockies fan.

His hope for the future of the collection is to display it in its entirety in Denver. He envisions a “hall of legends” that teaches people about the history of the sport and its value in American culture.

“Baseball really was the beginning of integration of culture, of race. It has a history of bringing our country together,” Fogel said. “It has a history of civil rights. It has a history of the singular hero, the beauty of the game. To me, it's an artform, and I possess that history. My goal, before I kick the bucket, is to find a way to keep it together so people can enjoy it.”

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