Baseball Gift Giving: Your Suggestions
So, I find myself with three baseball-loving people to buy gifts for in particular this year, my father, my brother, and my nephew (my brother’s 4-year-old son). Since the Yankees have just won the World Series, there’s NO END of World Series tchotchke I can buy them. Or at least, for my dad and brother, whereas my nephew declared this summer that he is a Red Sox fan. Yes, the young one has decided he must strike his own baseball-fan identity. My brother is a saint for treating his son with absolute tolerance and openness over this declaration, although that didn’t mean he didn’t lay on the pro-yankee stance pretty thick when we went to the Stadium in August. (Actually, it was my father who laid it on the thickest… and by the end of the day my nephew had actually decided to buy a yankees hat for himself, although that didn’t mean he gave up on the Red Sox either…)
Anyway, I know the likelihood of all members of the family giving each other the World Series DVD and such are high. I want to avoid duplicating.
So, what are your suggestions for gifts for each age group, dear readers? baseball-related, but not necessarily Yankees or World Series related. What are you getting for your loved ones? (Hoping of course that they don’t read this blog so they won’t see…)
Comment below please! (A name and email are required to comment, but they don’t have to be real.)
(P.S. There are also plenty of baseball-loving women in my family. But I tend to find other common enthusiasms with them to share, whereas baseball is the big one for the guys.)
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My mother drove me and my brother crazy with her smoking until she finally quit. Not everyone has the willpower, though. Here's something better to try:
I founded "Why I Like Baseball" as an online journal of baseball enthusiasm in 1999. That was before "blogs" were a phenomenon. See the "About the Author" link on the front page for the complete lowdown on me!
Books are always great. For a Yankee fan, the Munson biography that came out this summer by Marty Appel might hit the spot.
For the nephew, shirts are good, of course. Being a Cardinal fan, we have a couple of stuffed Fredbirds that my son enjoys.
1Oooh, I’ve been meaning to read that Munson bio myself. Now I have to make sure it hasn’t been gotten already for someone though… Great idea.
2You pesky Yankees and Red Sox fans!
Does your dad or brother have a massive head? The guys who you can’t see the tv if they are in the way? I review new Oriolesextra large hats every day.
Hat of the Day. Everyday.
3Hat of the Day! I love it. And yes, they have massive heads… but only in the “we just won the World Series” swelled-head kind of way…
4I’m a LITTLE biased here, but a membership in the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) (http://www.sabr.org) is a lovely gift, as are any of our BioProject books (http://astore.amazon.com/sabrwebsite-20).
5You know, that is a good one for my brother. I got him to come over to the SABR convention when it was in Denver and he was living there.
Will SABR send him a gift card, or do I have to make that myself?
6This is fairly self-serving… but… I started a Boston sports fan t-shirt company last year called Bottom Line Apparel. We have some cool tees that make great gifts for Sox fans… http://www.blshirts.com.
7I have some of the Bottom Line shirts! And self-serving is fine. Maybe I will find something for my nephew there that won’t drive my brother up a wall…
8how old is your nephew? would he appreciate the book stephen king co-wrote about the 2004 sox season?
http://www.amazon.com/Faithful-Diehard-Boston-Chronicle-Historic/dp/0743267524
9He’s going to be five in April, so Faithful is probably out of his reading range… But didn’t King to a children’s book with a Red Sox theme? The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon? Oh, but it might be scary. I’ll have to read it in the store and check. (I spent my childhood with “I’m too scared to sleep” insomnia so I’m sensitive about giving anything scary.)
10How about tickets for the family to a minor/independent league baseball game (or a gift certificate good for that)? Minor/independent league parks are both kid-friendly and affordable.
11That’s a great idea for my brother’s family. They are in New Jersey and I could even send them to the Staten Island Yankees, who have a really lovely waterfront ballpark and not one but three mascots! (A trio of “holy cows” named Scooter, Red, and Huckleberry)
12How about VIP experience tickets to the Baseball Hall of Fame?
http://community.baseballhall.org/Page.aspx?pid=393
It can be a little pricey (around $400 per person) but you get a personalized baseball bat!
13Hmm! That’s out of my personal price range, but that is the sort of thing a group of people could get together on to get some special person.
We’ve long said our next for-sure trip to Cooperstown will be for Jeter’s induction. Maybe I’ll be flusher by then…
14I am likely getting my dad As They See ‘Em: A Fan’s Travels in the Land of Umpires. Lots of great reviews, an interesting topic, and the preview chapter I read was well written.
15I have a copy o f that book on my desk! I met the author at the SABR convention in DC where I heard him speak and read from the book. I haven’t finished reading the book yet, but I have really enjoyed what I’ve read so far.
That Munson bio is looking appropriate for my dad, too.
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