DGF2099 Productions-Introduction to Sports Memorabilia-Richard Lastaer Race Worn Helmet

This week, on Introduction to Sports Memorabilia, we examine a helmet worn by former NASCAR driver Richard Lasater, worn during his horrific crash at Talladega in 1993. The helmet did its job and he was able to walk away.

The Driver Suit Blog-Item Spotlight-Alex Barron 1998 Champ Car Driver Suit

By David G. Firestone
While I typically watched NASCAR growing up, I did also watch IndyCar. That was before “the split” which diluted the value the sport so much that to this day it is still suffering, 6 years after the unification of Champ Car and the Indy Racing League. I got tired of politics and wanted to watch racing, I didn’t care who was sanctioning it. I still watch IndyCar racing and I collect race-used stuff.

I mentioned this a few months ago, when I discussed video matching. My first open wheel driver suit is this Alex Barron suit from 1998.

Not only is this my first open wheel suit, it was also my first suit that featured an FIA safety certification on the back of the neck. Having dealt in NASCAR suits, I didn’t know what to make of it, and through some research, I eventually learned what it was and what it meant. The chest features a FedEx Championship Series patch, probably my favorite sanctioning body patch ever,
and logos for Toyota and Denso. This being my first Sparco driver suit, The cowl tags, and location of the warranty tags were out of place, as compared to a NASCAR driver suit. One thing I do find interesting is that there are no television logos on the sleeves and legs, but as the video at the end shows, that was not uncommon, but more on that later.
The collar has an unusual design. Most collar designs feature either logos on the side, or logos across the front, or sometimes both. This one is unique in that it features a DEGREE logo on the front, as well as a CASTROL logo on the right side, but nothing on the left side…I’ve never seen that before or since, and I can’t understand the need for that particular design…it just looks odd.Alex’s name is embroidered into the belt, and something I love about open wheel suits is that because it is an international sport, much more so than NASCAR, the driver usually has their home country flag embroidered next to their name on their suit, as this suit shows.I also have a 1/18 die cast of Barron’s very sharp looking car from 1998. It is the only die cast I have that has a driver in it. I love the fact that he is wearing a very accurate version of his driver suit. Now as I mentioned, this was the suit Barron wore during his most infamous moment, his crash at Road America, where he wound up on top of Bryan Herta. Someone recently uploaded the whole race to YouTube, and when watching it, notice that nobody has logos for the in-car camera. I find that rather interesting, since it would be very easy to place logos on the sleeves, and it was commonplace in other forms of racing. But it is an interesting race.

Now we have another piece of news to discuss. In the realm of NCAA sports, the two major factions in uniforms are Nike and Under Armour. Nike has a deal with Denny Hamlin for driver suits, and I was wondering when Under Armour would jump on the band wagon, and this week, we got our answer. Under Armour, who has signed deals with Michael Waltrip Racing and Henrdick Motorsports to outfit teams with apparel. This deal does not include the drivers themselves but the car numbers are fair play. I find it a bit unusual that the deal provides apparel for all members of the team, pit crew members, front office personel, and everyone EXCEPT the faces of the franchises. Now that might change in the near future, but for now that is how the deal works. You can read more about the deal here.

Now we move to…

PAINT SCHEME REVIEWS!

Jamie McMurray #1 Bell Helicopters Chevy SS Great look, great color scheme, A+

Austin Dillon #3 Dow Powerhouse Solar Chevy SS The side is somewhat over designed, but I like the product placement on the roof. The color scheme is great so I will give it a B

Denny Hamlin #11 FedEx Office March Of Dimes Toyota Camry Decent color scheme, but the side is a bit overdesigned, and has a messy look to it. C+

Clint Bowyer #15 Willy’s Duck Diner/Buck Commander Toyota Camry Too much camo. Camo doesn’t work they way designers want it to on a car and I give it a D

Greg Biffle #16 Give Kids A Smile Ford Fusion Man! Greg Biffle really wants the Paint Schemie Awards for Most Degraded Paint Schemes, and Worst Paint Scheme Set with another F scheme. Horrible design, and an ugly paint scheme.

Greg Biffle #16 3M Areospace Ford Fusion Take the worst aspects of Greg Biffle 2014 schemes, and add a liberal amount of camo, and you have an F scheme

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. #17 Ford EcoBoot Ford Fusion I like the color scheme, I like the overall scheme, and my only complaint is that the orange numbers on the roof should be on the door. Still it is an A scheme

Cole Whitt #26 Swan Energy Toyota Camry Simple design and a great color scheme earns an A+

Paul Menard #27 Menards/Duracel Chevy SS This is the best Menard scheme I have seen! Duracel works very well on the hood, and I give it an A

Parker Kligerman #30 Swan Energy Toyota Camry Just when I thought Swan had learned the error of their ways, and were improving their paint schemes, along comes this one. Now we are back to square one, and this scheme earns a D+

Parker Kligerman #30 SMS Audio Toyota Camry Well things for Swan are looking up, this is a pretty cool design. It works very well, and has a great color scheme. A+

Ryan Newman #31 Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge Chevy SS I understand what they tried to do, but the scheme as a whole is just bland, boring, and C+.

Travis Kvapil #32 Keen Parts Ford Fusion Decent design, good color scheme, but the logo on the hood is very difficult to see. That is a major issue. When a sponsor pays for a car, the hood design should be easy to see, but this isn’t easy, and I give it a C-

Aric Almirola #43 Ekrich Ford Fusion The red on the roof is pointless, and it takes away from a great scheme. If the roof were Petty Blue, and the red was just a stripe on the bottom, I would give this scheme an A+ but with the red roof, it goes down to a B-

Michael McDowell #95 Triangle Office Equipment Levine Family Racing keeps up the fight with Swan Racing to win the Most Improved Paint Schemie Award with another beautiful A+ scheme!

Vintage Item Spotlight-Albie Pearson Topps #317 Rookie Card

By David G. Firestone

Albie Pearson played baseball in the Major League from 1958 to 1966. He played for the Washington Senators, Baltimore Orioles, and Los Angeles/California Angels. He was selected to the 1963 MLB All-Star game in Cleveland where he was a starter. Pearson was one of 3 outfielders to start the game, beating out Carl Yastrzemski, and Harmon Killebrew as starters. He is most well-known for his phenomenal 1958 rookie season, which he won the American League Rookie Of the Year honor, as well as The Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award.

In 1958, the Washington Senators were in the last year of one of the most ambitious uniform designs of their era, the legendary 3D Uniform. The home uniform featured a W and the back numerals in a 3 dimensional design. The design of the numbers was somewhat complex as illustrated by this similarly designed Eddie Yost number from the same year…

As can clearly be seen, the red bottom layer is made of tackle-twill, which was and still is one of the most popular materials for baseball uniform numbers. The middle layer is the same cream-colored lightweight flannel that the uniforms themselves were made of. The top layer is a blue tackle-twill design, to give the 3D appearance. The uniform was featured in the 1958 Warner Brothers musical Damn Yankees, and the numbers can clearly be seen in the Shoeless Joe from Hannibal MO scene as seen here:

The uniform lettering on the jerseys, while similar, is not as accurate as the on-field uniforms, as seen below…

This is the number 6 that Albie Pearson wore on his home jersey during his 1958 Washington Senators rookie season. It matches the Eddie Yost number design exactly. I also found a photo of him wearing this number on the back of his jersey.Now when I do research on an item, photo matching is paramount. One of the first and best places to find photographic evidence is trading cards. So I looked up his rookie card. I found it was a 1958 Topps Card, specifically card #317. When I saw the card, I was shocked.

What was so shocking? Let’s take a closer look…Huh? Pearson isn’t wearing #6, instead he is wearing a jersey with a number 7. When compared to the photograph above, it also appears as though it is a two-digit number. I could not understand how something like this could come to pass, and felt it warranted more research. It would seem likely that he wore a different number in training camp. I wanted to go to the source, and ask Mr. Pearson himself.

Pearson did not spend any time in the minors for Washington, so that can be eliminated as the cause. He was traded to the Senators in January 1958. Through some more research, I learned that since his retirement, Albie Pearson has founded churches and orphanages in Zambia and Ecuador. He founded Father’s Heart Ranch, an 11 acre ranch for abused, abandoned and neglected 6-12 year old boys. He lives on the ranch and is in charge of day-to-day operations. I contacted Albie Pearson about this through Father’s Heart Ranch\,and I got this response.. “…I believe the #7 which you see on my rookie card was the number I wore during spring training with the Washington Senators. I cannot recall if the number was 37 or 7 that I wore during spring training. My true number that I wore when I was rookie of the year was #6.” Based on this insight, I checked baseball reference, and found that #7 had been assigned to Bobby Malkmus in 1958 for 25 games and #37 wasn’t assigned to any player in 1958 or 1957. Based on this, it appears that Pearson is wearing #37 in his Topps rookie card.

I have never seen this number design anywhere else. I don’t even think that there are throwback jerseys with this design. So I felt it proper to analyze these number for all to enjoy. In fact, this is one of my favorite sub-genres in the memorabilia hobby, jersey numbers. Next edition of Vintage Item Spotlight, we will examine these numbers even closer.

The Driver Suit Blog-BREAKING AUTO RACING NEWS!

By David G. Firestone

NASCAR and the FIA announced this morning that starting in 2015, they will engage in a ride-swap program. Starting next Memorial Day, Formula 1 drivers will race in the Coca Cola 600, and NASCAR drivers will race in the Grand Prix of Monaco. NASCAR and F1 will race each others equipment in their respective races.In responding to the decision, FIA President Jean Todt stated that “Now we can bring a form of racing to America’s biggest stage that is under appreciated in the United States.” F1 Race Director Charlie Whiting stated “It’s going to be a serious challenge. The drivers and pit crews are not as prepared for this type of racing. We need to figure out new training and perperation methods for this 600 mile race. That said, I am really excited for our prospects!”

Brian France, Chairman and CEO of NASCAR stated “We are always on the lookout for new ways to promote the sport, and we are always looking for new venues and ideas for the Sprint Cup Series. Moncao will be a great way to bring a new, more international audience to NASCAR.” Mike Helton, President and COO of NASCAR stated “The new venue and the logistics will be very difficult, since many NASCAR drivers do not have that much experience in this form of racing.”

While the officials are very pleased at this new plan, the drivers are not as happy. Lewis Hamilton, who raced Tony Stewart’s Chevy at Watkins Glen a few years ago said “That type of driving is fun for a while, but I sure don’t want to race a 600 mile race in that car. Vision is restricted, the driver compartment is too hot, and I’m afraid of dehydration. While Tony Stewart could not be reached for comment, Kurt Busch was quoted as saying “Are you [Explative deleted] kidding me? We have to travel 10,000 [Explative deleted] to race in [Explative deleted] Monaco in [Explative deleted] F1 cars? I would rather [Explative deleted][Explative deleted][Explative deleted][Explative deleted] than race an F1 car!”

Fan reaction has been mixed. Some fans, like Alex Montgomerry of Charlotte complained “We look forward to the Coca Cola 600 all year, and now we have to watch a bunch of drivers we have never heard of race in cars they have never raced in?” William X. Jackson of Kannapolis North Carolina said “It will be a change, but I’m interested to see how it works out.” Rene Claude of Nice France said “While I am not a fan of NASCAR, I am interested in seeing how this race works out.” Claude D’Adele of Paris stated “If that happens, I, like many fans will not attend the race. I want to watch F1 drivers, not NASCAR drivers at Monaco!”

While the racing world is divided amongst those who are in favor, and those who are opposed, both NASCAR and F1 are convinced that this new partnership will increase fan interest for NASCAR internationally, and F1 in the United States.