Hobbyists descend on Monroeville to meet sports icons and pad card collections

If a player so much as drops a baseball in the dirt during certain hours, it becomes game-used memorabilia.

But the smudged, worn wooden bat in Tim Thoma’s hand really saw some action.

From 1965 to 1968, it belonged to Roberto Clemente. The Pirates legend used the bat to help him earn National League batting titles in 1965 and 1967 and league MVP in 1966.

And here it was: Not in some glass case, but being passed back and forth between collectors and Thoma, who is a retiree from Cabot who set up shop for Saturday’s card show at the Monroeville Convention Center.

“If you put any marks on it, you’re only going to add to it,” he said.

When someone asked him the price, he set it at $40,000. Then, he reconsidered: “$40,000-plus.”

Even then, he wasn’t sure he could give it up.

The border between fan and vendor can blur faster than a line drive out to center field.

From Friday to Sunday, the convention center became a mecca for the most die hard Pittsburgh sports fan.

Saturday alone drew at least 1,000 attendees looking to round out their collections.

If sports fans collect it, vendors had it — from signed jerseys to bundles of trading cards to action figures. Attendees also could have signatures authenticated and their memorabilia appraised at certain booths.

And for those looking to meet Pittsburgh sports icons of years past, it was the place to be.

The three-day event features photos ops and autograph opportunities with Steelers linebacker Jack Ham, all-star Pirates pitcher Jason Grilli and Dick LeBeau, architect of some of the Steelers’ most fearsome defenses, to name a few.

Organizer Jim DiCandilo, owner of Main Line Autographs, even managed to snag a few national names.

Five-time NBA champion Dennis Rodman drew a strong crowd Saturday afternoon, among them Kyle Canterbury, 27, of Monaca. He has fond memories of playing Rodman in NBA Jam, an over-the-top arcade basketball video game popular in the 1990s and 2000s.

Rodman’s appeal is two-sided, DiCandilo noted.

“He’s famous,” he said, “He’s infamous at the same time.”

Sports fandom was one thing everyone had in common. The drive to collect was another shared trait, one that spilled into political pins, superhero cards and antique postcards at Doug Pall’s booth.

Pall, 77, of Ocean City, Md., has been in the business for decades. He started off primarily selling baseball cards (in the 1980s, he noted, all other sports card were barely worth the cardboard they were printed on), but slowly expanded his non-sports selection over the years.

The campaign pins were something he tacked on six or seven years ago to “try to get some young blood,” he said. For whatever reason, its the nation’s younger half who are clamoring for relics of the Lyndon Johnson or Gerald Ford campaigns.

Case in point: Coen Turri. The 18-year-old from North East, a small borough near Erie, approached Pall with cash and an Andrew Jackson trading card in hand just as he finished making his point to a TribLive reporter.

“I was hoping it was here,” Turri said.

Why Jackson, of all presidents? Turri likes the story of when Jackson beat a would-be assassin with a cane, thwarting an attempt on his own life in no-nonsense fashion. Earlier in the day, he got his photo taken with former MLB reliever Rollie Fingers.

Part of the fun for show-goers is the treasure hunt, explained Patrick Leyland, 48, of Allegheny Township. It was around 1 p.m. Saturday, and the avid Pirates fan was looking over a table full of signed baseballs.

“It’s hit or miss,” he said. “Sometimes, you find that needle in the haystack.”

More people than ever, it seems, are getting in on that action. News articles abound about the hobby’s revival post-pandemic.

It was only a matter of time with the rise of eBay, Amazon and other online marketplaces, some explain. There’s also the well-documented wave of nostalgia that accompanied lockdowns as folks sought security in the past. They had some time on their hands, after all, to thumb through dust-caked card binders.

A particular Batman card went for $1 until a year ago, in Pall’s experience. It easily clears $150 these days.

Steelers super-fan Mike Dapcevich, 65, of Pittsburgh’s Manchester neighborhood has seen many ebbs and flows in the card collecting hobby over the years.

He spent around two decades as a vendor, but goes to shows these days as an ordinary buyer — if every buyer knew half the vendors on a personal level. And even if the boom turns sports collectibles back into a niche interest, he’ll still be there.

“The die hards,” he said. “They never stop.”