Bil Madden didn't like the World Series press pins

In a "the World Series ain't what it used to be" column, Madden included this lengthy rant about the quality of press pins being issued.

OK, maybe that flies in a collectors newsletter, but do readers of the NY Daily News care about whether the Tampa Bay Rays handed out a nice press pin?

Somebody at the Daily News should have chopped this out of the column:

<i><b>And while this may seem like a small thing, another example of baseball people disrespecting the World Series and its tradition was the press pins that were handed out. Where, for years, the press pins, issued by each of the participating teams, were works of art - dye struck on thick jeweler’s brass with raised lettering and hard, hand-fired enamel - the pins from the last three World Series have had the look and feel of thin, cheap replicas, the kind you might find in a Cracker Jack box.

The Rays’ and Phillies’ pins, particularly, are junk, neither of them even inscribed with what number World Series it is for the teams. You would think the Rays especially would have thought to have “First World Series” noted on their pin, but their marketing people obviously didn’t have a clue and didn’t make them a priority.

For the record, the tradition of the pins began in 1911 as a reactionary measure by the Baseball Writers Association to Giants manager John McGraw assigning seats in the World Series press box to a bunch of his friends. For many years after, the pins, which were dated, served as the official World Series press box admittance before later evolving into an annual commemorative issued to most of the media and club officials.

“Every year, I’d sit down with the PR and marketing directors of the clubs and go over the design and style of the pins,” said Craig Cole, president of C&C Sports, who designed the pins for 30 years for the Balfour Co. and now works for Masters of Design in Attleboro, Mass. “The teams really understood the historical significance and would spend hours with me painstakingly going over the design. What’s happened in recent years is that the teams have gone to their local licencees, who don’t have any idea about the pins’ tradition.

“I would venture to say that these new pins, which were probably made in China, will begin to tarnish in six months and will eventually completely turn color and fade.”

Why should clubs care about the quality of the pins? To that, you need to go to the Hall of Fame and the World Series room where, in a huge glasstop table, the two rings and two press pins from every World Series are displayed. Other than the winner’s trophy, the rings and the pins are the only tangible and lasting mementoes of a team’s participation in the World Series. That alone should be sufficient reason for clubs to take a little pride in them, and the unenlightened Rays’ and Phillies’ marketing people should be ashamed.

Then again, the pins have become a symbol of the growing apathy and indifference in baseball toward the World Series.</i></b>

 

Awesome. Smasher, you made my day, and it's only 6:05 am.

Back in my day we had press pins that were bullet-proof! We'd trade our kid for one! And there were no punks with their laptops and their cellular phones in the press box! We drank and we smoked and we didn't let anybody we didn't like in! We filed our stories on typewriters and via Western Union! And we liked it! End transmission!

 

Reason No. 2,537,374 that people don't like the media:

"Wahhhh! We don't get nice press pins anymore!!!!!"

 

I can see where some might think this is petty but Madden does is correct about how junky the pins have become.

I'm a bit of amateur collector in Yankee post season memorabilia including press pins from all of their World Series visits. I've also have a pretty good collection of pins done by other teams. The Tampa and Philly pins are crap.

What Madden misses is the real reason for the demise. Up until 1999 the press pins were part of the design of the World Series trophy. MLB went to new design in 2000 and the press pins were no longer part of the trophy thus losing a bit of significance. Madden is correct about the HOF part. There is a great display of pins and rings. When compared to rest fo display this years pins will be pretty junky .

 

And we walked uphill to and from the press parking lot every day... in the snow.

 

Given Buddy's recent WS presentations, it ain't so funny, anymore.

 

The newspaper that lands on my doorstep this morning has the look and feel of a thin, cheap replica as well.

 

Joe Falls school of journalism; He would bitch about press box food in print.

 

If Madden thinks people want to read six paragraphs of whining about WS press pins, he's more out of touch than (insert the name of your least favorite politician here).

 

As blog fodder, this is fine.

MSM, not so much.

 

At least he delivered the money line straight out of the gate:

It is.

Nobody cares.

 

that's pathetic

pitiful

embarrassing