jayson: hi i'm jayson, and i am ten years old,and i am from trumbull, connecticut. a lot of people may think that there's onlypaintings in the museum, but there's also a lot of baseball cards. this is freyda. freyda spira: hi, i'm freyda spira. i'm anassociate curator in the drawings and prints
Sports Museum, department. jayson: i am a fan of baseball myself, andi actually collect baseball cards. freyda spira: we have about thirty thousandbaseball cards, which is the most outside of the hall of fame in cooperstown.
so these are the first baseball cards evercreated, in the late 1800s. with baseball, they wanted to show not only the player, butall of the equipment and the team. jayson: so that's their bat, their belt, andsome other stuff? freyda spira: that's right, and it just givesyou a sense of what the sport was really like back then. jayson: ok, so are these the next baseballcards? freyda spira: so these are called cabinetcards, and what's cool about them is that they're actual photographs. and so, someonetook a photograph and then they just pasted it onto a piece of cardboard.
so this is the honus wagner card, and thisis the rarest baseball card in history. jayson: honus wagner was a good player. heplayed on pittsburgh, and he is really rare because there's only twelve of them left onearth. freyda spira: these are called the hassantriple folders, and they're really cool because they include a black-and-white photographof an action shot, and then it's framed by two players. jayson: i like the action shots because ilike to see intense scenes where somebody's sliding into the base, or somebody's aboutto get thrown out. freyda: so here is mickey mantle.
jayson: mickey mantle! freyda spira: yeah, and what you're startingto see is that around 1952 they're starting to think about standardizing the cards. jayson: they started to have signatures onthem, and they also pointed out the team that the players played on. and i also recognize some of these players:babe ruth, lou gehrig, jackie robinson. he helps convince the major leagues to letafrican americans and hispanics play. i do play baseball, and i'm hispanic as well. [baseball bat cracks]
[crowd cheers] jayson: how did the museum get all these baseballcards? freyda spira: the collector, jefferson burdick,started collecting cards when he was ten, and he amassed this huge collection of overthree hundred thousand cards. jayson: the met also has not just baseballcards, but basketball, boxing, football, everything. a lot of different types of cards. if some kids come in here, how would theysee these cards? freyda spira: so, all year we have on exhibitbaseball cards in the american wing, in the luce study center. we have about 150 to 200baseball cards on view all year round.
do you have a most valuable card in your collection? jayson: yes i do, it's kind of almost a tie.one of them is myself, a card—i was playing baseball and they took a picture. and theother card is bobby valentine, a signed card. thanks for showing me around, freyda. freyda spira: thanks for coming in. jayson: this is jayson, reporting from themetropolitan museum of art. jayson and freyda spira: bye!
jayson: hi i'm jayson, and i am ten years old,and i am from trumbull, connecticut. a lot of people may think that there's onlypaintings in the museum, but there's also a lot of baseball cards. this is freyda. freyda spira: hi, i'm freyda spira. i'm anassociate curator in the drawings and prints
Sports Museum, department. jayson: i am a fan of baseball myself, andi actually collect baseball cards. freyda spira: we have about thirty thousandbaseball cards, which is the most outside of the hall of fame in cooperstown.
so these are the first baseball cards evercreated, in the late 1800s. with baseball, they wanted to show not only the player, butall of the equipment and the team. jayson: so that's their bat, their belt, andsome other stuff? freyda spira: that's right, and it just givesyou a sense of what the sport was really like back then. jayson: ok, so are these the next baseballcards? freyda spira: so these are called cabinetcards, and what's cool about them is that they're actual photographs. and so, someonetook a photograph and then they just pasted it onto a piece of cardboard.
so this is the honus wagner card, and thisis the rarest baseball card in history. jayson: honus wagner was a good player. heplayed on pittsburgh, and he is really rare because there's only twelve of them left onearth. freyda spira: these are called the hassantriple folders, and they're really cool because they include a black-and-white photographof an action shot, and then it's framed by two players. jayson: i like the action shots because ilike to see intense scenes where somebody's sliding into the base, or somebody's aboutto get thrown out. freyda: so here is mickey mantle.
jayson: mickey mantle! freyda spira: yeah, and what you're startingto see is that around 1952 they're starting to think about standardizing the cards. jayson: they started to have signatures onthem, and they also pointed out the team that the players played on. and i also recognize some of these players:babe ruth, lou gehrig, jackie robinson. he helps convince the major leagues to letafrican americans and hispanics play. i do play baseball, and i'm hispanic as well. [baseball bat cracks]
[crowd cheers] jayson: how did the museum get all these baseballcards? freyda spira: the collector, jefferson burdick,started collecting cards when he was ten, and he amassed this huge collection of overthree hundred thousand cards. jayson: the met also has not just baseballcards, but basketball, boxing, football, everything. a lot of different types of cards. if some kids come in here, how would theysee these cards? freyda spira: so, all year we have on exhibitbaseball cards in the american wing, in the luce study center. we have about 150 to 200baseball cards on view all year round.
do you have a most valuable card in your collection? jayson: yes i do, it's kind of almost a tie.one of them is myself, a card—i was playing baseball and they took a picture. and theother card is bobby valentine, a signed card. thanks for showing me around, freyda. freyda spira: thanks for coming in. jayson: this is jayson, reporting from themetropolitan museum of art. jayson and freyda spira: bye!