The Joe Browns collections of sport memorabilia
By: Arnaud Mignan
Tags: Sports Memorabilia, Baseball, Entertainment, Correspondence, Collection

The Joe Browns collections of sport memorabilia

Autographed baseballs & baseball pins as part of Americana collecting

Sport memorabilia make for excellent souvenirs of past games and are considered a solid investment when it comes to collectibles. Baseball, the U.S. “national pastime”, as well as football and basketball, being part of American culture, make collecting U.S. sport artefacts a sub-discipline of Americana collecting. Some celebrities with large collections include Bryan Cranston (baseball cards) and Charlie Sheen (Babe Ruth memorabilia). The most prized items include trading cards, autographed baseball bats and baseballs, boxing gloves, basketball shoes, etc.

The sport memorabilia market is trending up, as proven by the impressive auction results observed in recent years. The most expensive baseball bats have passed the $1,000,000 price tag (see top-price ranking). The most iconic collector of baseball memorabilia is Barry Harper.

The Barry Halper ultimate baseball memorabilia collection.

Joe E. Brown, father

Best remembered as a comedy actor, less as a semi-pro baseball player with the National Vaudeville Artists team, Joseph Evans Brown (1891–1973) the collector remains virtually unknown. Rare are the mentions of him as one of the greatest early collectors of sport memorabilia although he pioneered the field of baseball and football collecting (Gehring, 2006:4).

Press photograph by B. Longworth, Warner Bros, c. 1934. Caption on the back reads: “Here is a close-up view of some of the many trophies collected by Joe E. Brown, Warner Bros. star, who recently completed the picture ‘6 Day Bike Rider’, during his lifetime. Practically all of these articles are personally autographed from many friends and would not be disposed of by him for a fortune. This case is a feature of his den in his Beverly Hills home”. Source: The Tricottet Collection.

His collection was formed mainly from gifts from players that he knew personally. Brown’s prized possessions included Hall of Fame Tris Speaker’s spikes from the 1920 World Series, Pittsburgh Pirate Paul Waner’s bat from one of his National League batting title years, a Babe Ruth bat from the legendary 60-home run season in 1927, Lou Gehrig’s last glove, and pitcher Dizzy Dean’s St. Louis Cardinals uniform from the 1934 World Series. Joe kept these many trophies in his “Room of Love” (Gehring, 2006:100; see 1951 photograph on IMDB). With his son playing football at U.C.L.A., he additionally collected balls from important college games (see example on the press photo on the left).

Joe E. Brown’s Babe Ruth bat, inscribed by Ruth to Brown, sold for $660,000 in 2018 (Sports Collectors Daily, 2018), making it the 7th most expensive baseball bat of all times (see 2020 ranking) and finally putting Brown-the-collector on the map. It is one of the few collectibles from the Joe. E. Brown that survive to this day, since most of his baseball memorabilia collection was unfortunately lost to flames in 1961 when a wild fire destroyed his house (except for his earlier donations to U.C.L.A.; ref. needed). By chance, the Babe Ruth bat was by then in his son’s collection, Joe. L. Brown, who sold it years later.

Joe L. Brown, son

Autographed baseball from the Joe L. Brown collection with PSA/DNA CoA (see details below). Source: The Tricottet Collection.

Autographed baseball collection

Joe LeRoy Brown (1918–2010) was the general manager of the World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates between 1955 and 1976 and ranks as the 19th best general manager in baseball history. Joe. E. Brown did not only pass his love of baseball to his son, but also his passion of sport memorabilia collecting. Being part of the baseball professional circuit, Joe L. Brown managed to amass a large collection of autographed baseballs.

More than 200 baseballs from the Joe. L. Brown collection have been sold at auction in 2015 (e.g. Lelands, 2015a; 2015b; Huggins & Scott Auctions, 2015). They are recognisable by the date of game and other notes being inscribed by Joe (capitalised form, blue ink — see below). The pedigree ‘Joe L. Brown collection’ is also indicated on the certificates of authenticity from the PSA/DNA Autograph Authentication and Grading Services.

▼ Suite of three autographed baseballs & a letter. (1) Autographed baseballs with game and date written by Joe. L. Brown: (a) Allie Reynolds, with note “NO-HIT, NO-RUN GAMES, JULY 12, 1951, SEPT. 28, 1951” (with PSA/DNA card-size CoA and sticker, no. X51844); (b) Leonard Coleman, with note “PRES. NAT.x LG. 1994” (with PSA/DNA card-size CoA and sticker, no. X51956); (c) Buzzie Bavasi, Buck O’Neil, Edgar Munzel, Leonard Koppett, Ken Coleman, Ed Stack, Hank Peters, Allen Lewis, Donald Marr and Hall of Fame inductees Yogi Berra, Monte Irvin, Stan Musial and Ted Williams, with note “MARCH 5, 1996 ELECTED [???] FOSTER” (with PSA/DNA pictured CoA and sticker, certified 10 November 2014, no. V05675). (2) Letter from Joe L. Brown to E.J. Bavasi, general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, dated 11 September 1961 and signed, with Pittsburgh Baseball Club letterhead. Reads: “Dear Buzzie: Last year, at my request, you were kind enough to send me two baseballs autographed by your club. I am requesting the same favor this year and anything you can do will be most appreciated. With all good wishes, I am. Cordially, Joe. L. Brown, General Manager.”

Provenance: J.L. Brown (baseballs)