Clemente cap story from 2003

[kingjammy24]

ran across this old story from 2003:
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La Jollan looks to authenticate Clemente cap's World Series origins
By Allison Schlesinger
ASSOCIATED PRESS
5:58 p.m. October 13, 2003

PITTSBURGH – An aged black baseball cap with a flattened bill and a gold letter "P" on the front could fetch as much as $30,000 at auction, if the owner can prove it isn't just any hat, but one worn by Pirates great Roberto Clemente during the seventh game of the 1960 World Series.
Before most savvy sports memorabilia collectors will shell out thousands of dollars, Howard G. Singer must not only authenticate the hat's original owner but also prove his remarkable story that he grabbed it from Clemente's head 43 years ago during the chaos that followed the winning home run of the deciding game of the series between the Pirates and the New York Yankees.
Singer's quest to find witnesses and evidence to back up his story brought him to Pittsburgh on Monday as a group of Pirates fans gathered at the last remnants of Forbes Field – an outfield wall – to celebrate the anniversary of one of the most unpredictable World Series of all time.
Singer, a Pittsburgh native who lives in La Jolla, Calif., was a 19-year-old baseball fan when he attended the Oct. 13, 1960 game. At that point, the Yankees had outscored the Pirates 46-17 – winning Game 2 16-3 and Game 3 10-0 – and most bookmakers had quit posting odds, figuring the home team had no chance.
According to Singer's story, he made his way to the railing near the Pirates' dugout at the end of the eighth inning, with the feeling that Pittsburgh might pull through. If so, his plan was to pry home plate off the field during the post-game celebration as a souvenir.
The Yankees had tied the game 9-9 in the ninth when Bill Mazeroski, who hit only 11 homers during the season, hit a decisive home run. It's considered one of the greatest late-inning World Series comebacks ever.
Singer never grabbed home plate because two sheriff's deputies stopped him in the act, but it turns out that he might have gotten a more valuable item.
As he made his way to home plate, Singer grabbed the hat off a player's head – he didn't notice who – and stuffed it under his shirt. It wasn't until he was on the trolley headed home that he noticed the "21" written in felt-tip pen on the inside of the hat and realized that he had grabbed Clemente's cap.
"This isn't stolen property," Singer said. "Players will tell you that a lot of guys lost caps and gloves on the way to the clubhouse. Now they didn't really lose them. Fans found them. The ball club is the one who really owns this cap, but the Pirates never asked for it back."
It hasn't been hard for Singer to prove that the cap once belonged to Clemente. At the urging of a columnist at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Singer tracked down Chuck Cirelli, who as a teenager worked in the locker rooms at Forbes Field from the late 1950s to the 1970s and now authenticates Pirates memorabilia.
"It's a good hat. I know it belong to Clemente because that's the way (the equipment manager) used to write the number," Cirelli said. "What I can't say is if he took it off Clemente's head that day."
Victor Moreno, the owner of American Memorabilia, a Las Vegas-based sports and celebrity auction house, doesn't doubt Singer's story. He just wants Singer to produce tangible proof of the story so potential bidders will believe it, too.
A cap worn by Clemente garnered a winning bid of $6,555 at an auction in September, Moreno said.
But if Singer could produce some definitive evidence that reinforces his story, such as a photo of him taking the cap off of Clemente's head, the hat could fetch between $25,000 to $30,000 at an auction, Moreno said. Clemente wore lots of caps, after all, but there was only one he likely donned during that seventh game.
Singer recently discovered a photo of fans greeting Mazeroski at home plate and Singer can be seen in the left corner of the image. That, he said, proves he was at the game. Singer also knows of a video that shows Clemente walking around the field capless.
"When you put those two things together, I can assume that his story's legit. He's got to have stronger evidence before someone's going to be willing to fork over 25 grand," Moreno said.
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rudy.

[both-teams-played-hard]

Clemente's cap a real steal for man who stole it

Thursday, April 01, 2004
By Brian O'Neill

There must have been some magic in that baseball cap he seized, for when he placed it on the Internet it went for 21 Gs.

Some of you will remember the story of Howard G. Singer, who came back to Pittsburgh from southern California last October to catch a thief: Himself. He had to prove that he lifted the cap off Roberto Clemente's head on that glorious afternoon when Bill Mazeroski homered to win the 1960 World Series.

Singer claimed that, as a 19-year-old, he vaulted the railing beside the Pirates dugout as soon as Maz's blow cleared the left field fence. As the bedlam began, he reached out to grab a cap off a nearby player's head.

It turned out to be The Great One's. It stayed stuck in a drawer for four decades and then, at 62, Singer returned to Pittsburgh, hat in hand.

That afternoon I spent with Singer last fall was like being in a "Columbo'' episode, though I was one ratty raincoat short of a sleuth. Just as in that show, the story unfolded with everyone knowing who did it. Only in this story, the perpetrator himself had everything riding on proving his theft.

A Clemente cap might be worth $6,000, but a cap worn in the game that ended with the most dramatic home run in Series history would be worth three times as much.

Hey, my mother always said if you can help one teenage thief make a small fortune before his 63rd birthday -- no, wait, that wasn't Mom. That was Alexander Mundy in "It Takes a Thief." Either way, I helped Singer.

The corroborating evidence that he and I found six months ago wound up on the americanmemorabilia.com Web site. We found the record album, "The Impossible Pirates,'' which showed the teenage Singer at the edge of the crowd waiting for Maz at home plate. We found a Forbes Field clubhouse worker, Chuck Cirelli, on his Brookline porch, who rolled over the size 7 cap with the scrawled number "21'' and proclaimed, "That's a good hat.''

The evidence was good enough for Ron Leff of suburban Philadelphia, who made the winning bid of $21,401 for the Clemente cap two weeks ago. Leff, 50, is a Phillies fan, but he figures this lid will blend nicely with the ones he owns from Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Mark McGwire and others.

Bidding for the icon's cap started at $7,500. On its last day, the numbers jumped like a rookie's heart on Opening Day, but stayed within Leff's limit.

"I'm trying to build a world-class collection and sometimes you've got to pay up,'' he said.

It helped that Dennis Esken, 52, of Munhall, vouched for this cap. Esken, who doesn't know Singer, often bashes so-called experts in the memorabilia trade. (Just ask Esken who has the real glove worn by Mickey Mantle in Don Larsen's 1956 perfect game, Esken or Billy Crystal.) So when Esken studied the photos of the Clemente cap and told Leff this couldn't possibly be a counterfeit, Leff bid with confidence.

In summary, a cap that a teenager grabbed in front of 36,683 people is returning to Pennsylvania to be part of a hat rack that would make any baseball fan's ears wiggle.

"For many years I forgot I even owned it,'' Singer said. "I couldn't wear it because [Clemente] wore a size 7. The biggest help to me was that I had forgotten about it. In the course of 43 years, it just became more and more valuable."

He said he hadn't done the math to see how much he made here. American Memorabilia of Las Vegas gets 15 percent of the purchase price from the seller, and another 15 percent above the purchase price from the buyer. The American Memorabilia president, Victor Moreno, grew up in Braddock, where he learned a little something about juice.

If my calculator's still working, that means Singer should get a check for $18,190.85. Not a bad markup from what he didn't pay for it in 1960.

[skipcareyisfat]

[QUOTE"This isn't stolen property," Singer said. "Players will tell you that a lot of guys lost caps and gloves on the way to the clubhouse. Now they didn't really lose them. Fans found them. The ball club is the one who really owns this cap, but the Pirates never asked for it back." [/QUOTE]

Yeah right. He "found" a hat that was still attached to someone's head. According to this guy's logic, I could go through his garage and pocket some tools and it wouldn't be stealing because I found them on his workbench. :eek:

[both-teams-played-hard]

Yes, I agree. Once, someone "found" my car parked on the street, outside my building. I wasn't in my car at the time, so maybe someone thought I was done with it. Finders keepers...