Excerpt:
Splendid splinters
Mr. Baseball a.k.a. Alexander Cartwright IV is presenting a little baseball history in wood. You just won't be able to hit a fastball very effectively with it.
Cartwright, the great-great-grandson of baseball pioneer Alexander Cartwright Jr., started Mr. Baseball LLC about a year ago and has a Web site devoted to the history of baseball. Over 150 years ago Cartwright Jr., who is in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, designed the baseball diamond and set many of the rules still in use today. He is acknowledged officially according to his plaque in the Hall of Fame as the Father of Modern Baseball. Sorry, Abner Doubleday.
Now there's a bit of history on wood that people can buy wooden baseball cards.
The Mr. Baseball wooden baseball cards are laser engraved out of cherry, and depict some of the earliest images from our national pastime. Cartwright Jr., some of the New York Knickerbocker baseball team players, and Elysian Fields, in Hoboken, N.J., are shown on the three versions of cards.
It's kind of unique and not many people are taking advantage of the technology, said Darrel Smith of www.mrbaseball.com. It's all laser-engraved. You can take any photo and digitally image it onto any piece of wood.
The cards are cut with a laser that reads and plots a computer-scanned photo or image. It is able to create amazing detail, raising the image from the wood, Smith said. The card of Cartwright Jr. was made from a more than 150-year-old faded photograph, which the scanner and machine used as a template to carve the card.
In addition to the cards, a small, limited-edition plaque depicting Elysian Fields in 1846 was created in cherry for the 150th birthday of Hoboken, N.J., which was celebrated in early June.
A portion of the proceeds will go to the Mr. Baseball Foundation. The foundation was set up to preserve the historical significance of baseball through the Web site, provide funding and education for adult and children's programs promoting baseball, and educate people on the early history of baseball and Alexander Cartwright Jr.
The wooden baseball cards are $14.95 each, with the full set of three going for $39.95. The limited-edition plaque of Elysian Fields sells for $49.95.
Contact: Mr. Baseball, c/o Alexander Cartwright, 2919 210th Ave. E., Sumner, WA. Tel: 877-551-1023. www.mrbaseball.com
James Foye