After a late start, some fun collecting baseball memorabilia

Baseballs are overpowering my office.

In fact, I think they may be reproducing in the dead of night, even though I have only two balls signed by women. And I'm pretty certain the women who signed those balls are well past child-bearing age.

Another eBay addict ...

The first time I ever bought anything off eBay was nearly nine years ago, when I purchased an old photograph of my friend Walter Masterson from the Washington Senators 1949 yearbook.

Walt Masterson

I sent it to him, he signed it for me and I have had it framed and on my wall ever since.

I covered baseball in the minors and majors for the better part of 16 years, and I didn't collect memorabilia for all that time.

All I have from back then are season credentials from when I covered the Los Angeles Dodgers and the (then) California Angels, a media pass from the St. Louis games of the 1985 World Series and a photograph of me in uniform as the (one night) manager of the Gastonia Cardinals.

I didn't collect autographs -- it would have been totally unprofessional -- and the only one I wish I had was from the night I sat and talked with Roger Maris for an hour in 1982.

I have two pieces of football memorabilia, both connected with John Elway. You can see the jersey in the photograph, and I also have a picture of me interviewing the Denver quarterback that appeared in Sports Illustrated in January 1987.

Once I stopped being a sportswriter, I started collecting balls. I had some very impressive ones -- Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Duke Snider, Warren Spahn, Johnny Bench and Willie Mays, among others -- but good ones were too expensive through stores and mail-order and the Internet hadn't really blossomed yet.

Then eBay came along ...

Then eBay came along, although it had been a big deal for a long time before I began using it. When I started looking for baseballs online, I saw that two types of sellers were operating on eBay -- professionals and amateurs. The ones from professionals cost more, but nearly always have better certification of their authenticity. Amateurs might give you a real bargain, but you're taking a chance that your Babe Ruth ball might actually have been signed by Babs Ruthie.

Bill Terry

I've actually done reasonably well on eBay. It always surprises me that some of the most overpriced balls are from players who may be signing for another 20-30 years. I've been pretty lucky finding balls that must have been signed very later in the life of the player, and I've managed to get signatures from players who were active as far back as the 1920s for half of what Mariano Rivera would cost me.

Bill Terry hit .401 in 1930 and he didn't die until 1989, so I have a signed ball from the last National Leaguer to hit .400.

I have made an effort to collect big moments from the World Series, so I've got Don Larsen (perfect game, 1956), Bill Mazeroski (home run, 1960), Kirk Gibson (home run, 1988), Mickey Lolich (three wins, 1968) and Reggie Jackson (Mr. October, 1978).

Rudy and Joe

I also like some odd ones. Willis Hudlin gave up Babe Ruth's 500th home run  in 1929, Virgil "Fire" Trucks pitched two no-hitters (and has the same first name as my son) and Johnny Vander Meer is the only pitcher to throw back-to-back no-hitters. Take that, Nolan Ryan.

But some of my favorites didn't actually play. Peter Gammons is in the Hall of Fame as a great baseball writer, Scott Boras is Super Agent and Chris Berman was ESPN's first big star. I've also got a ball with a 911 connection -- New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Yankees Manager Joe Torre.

As for the women, I love my ball from filming of "A League of Their Own" in Evansville, Ind. It only has four signatures -- director Penny Marshall and actresses Lori Petty and Madonna. There's a guy on the ball, too -- Tom Hanks.

Jane Fonda

Still, the one that's got to be my biggest oddity is another woman who didn't play the game. In fact, her only real connection was that she was married to a team owner for nearly 10 years.

Of course, Jane Fonda has always been a lot more controversial than that.

I love it when I have a chance to pick up balls that are out of the ordinary. Hey, I'm never going to get that 1918 World Series ball some guy was selling on eBay for $176,000.

Not without my wife and kids committing me.