Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about a jersey worn by Wayne Gretzky during his three-game tenure as captain for the New York Rangers in 1998.

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/wayne-gretzky-jersey-captains-part-of-grey-flannel-auction-in-may/​

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily, a follow-up to the Paul Skenes 2024 Topps Chrome Update 1/1 MLB Debut Patch autograph card that sold for $1.11 million on March 20. The winning bidder was Dick's Sporting Goods:

​www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/dicks-sporting-goods-announces-it-had-winning-bid-for-paul-skenes-1-1-debut-patch-autograph-card/

​They are the workers who scan your tickets, guide you to your seats and make a professional sporting event a fun experience.

But to Bruce Reynolds, working as a fan host at Tropicana Field has never been a job. He is having too much fun.
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Reynolds, 73, gives readers an inside look at the quirky dome in St. Petersburg, Florida, throwing in interesting stories, a puckish sense of humor and an endless barrage of corny jokes that are nevertheless endearing.
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There Is No Place Like Dome: A Fan Host's Unofficial View from the Top of the Trop to the Stands with the Fans (St. Petersburg Press; paperback; $19.95; 169 pages) is a look at the Trop from Reynolds’ perspectives from his posts in Sections 116 and 118. He has been a fan host with his wife, Jeanette, since 2008, but is not working in Tampa this year as the Rays are playing their 2025 home games at George M. Steinbrenner Field. That temporary move was necessitated by Hurricane Milton, which severely damaged the Tropicana Field roof when it roared through the Tampa Bay area in October 2024.

Reynolds’ book is timely, since on March 13 the Rays backed out of a deal for a new stadium. The city of St. Petersburg has plans to restore Tropicana Field in time for the 2026 season. 

Fans are generally more interested in what is going on during the game, and many do not pay attention to the ushers in the stands. But fan hosts do play a crucial role in keeping order, and Reynolds has added several twists through the years to make his presence memorable to fans.

“I really have no impact on what takes place on the field, but I have a lot to do with a fan’s experience during the game,” Reynolds writes. “Regardless of the final score, I want to do all that I can for the fan to have a memorable time.

“Hopefully they will have enjoyed themselves, so much so that they want to return for another game.”

The Baltimore native is an ordained Presbyterian minister who grew up a diehard Orioles fan. He and his wife learned about becoming fan hosts during a Rays Fan Fest in 2008.

“What can seem like a mindless job, in that all you do is check tickets and then watch baseball, is far from reality,” Reynolds writes.

That includes subduing a “wild beast” — a bat that was underneath a seat in the stands—and rerouting fans who try to sneak into better seats during the game.
“When I ask them to show me their ticket, it often has become ‘lost,’” Reynolds writes. “Think about it, that is hard to do these days since your ticket is on your phone.

“An amazing number of phone batteries die in The Trop once fans enter the stadium.”

The reader learns how many steps there are in Reynolds’ section (51) and who retrieves the baseballs that are invariably trapped in Tropicana Field’s notorious catwalks. Also, how Reynolds once placed his badge under a hand soap dispenser instead of a scanner at the stadium.

He adds that using his sense of humor while doing his job depends on the body language of the fan.
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“It requires me the ability to read people, and rather quickly,” Reynolds writes

But Reynolds confesses that sometimes he makes mistakes. One example in 2008 is alternately embarrassing and hilarious.

“To be honest, I committed more than one error on this play,” Reynolds writes.
A man in his late 20s carrying a tray of food back to his seat during the fifth inning asked if Reynolds needed to see his ticket.

Reynolds said yes, and the man said the ticket was in his back left pocket and motioned for the usher to dig it out. Rather than hold the man’s tray, Reynolds obliged.

“Immediately I could feel the edge and corner of the ticket as I pulled it out. By now there were several fans waiting behind him to go down, along with fans sitting at the top of the section all watching what was unfolding,” he writes. “So, I pull out in front of all these curious fans, not a ticket, but a condom.”

Reynolds put the “ticket” back in the fan’s pocket. When the man asked if everything was all right, Reynolds said yes and quickly moved the man down the aisle.

“I should have told him he was ‘safe,’” he writes.
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Reynolds attended Parkville High School in Baltimore and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history from North Carolina's High Point College (now University) in 1974. Four years later he received a Master of Divinity degree in Theological Studies from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts.

Reynolds also is a graduate of the Mooseburger Clown Arts Camp in Minnesota, which touts itself as “the premier clown arts school for adults in America.”
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That is a perfect fit for Reynolds, who enjoys clowning around in the stands as a fan host. He has worn taco hats, sub hats and pizza hats, and enjoys mugging with fans and snapping photographs.

The pizza hat was born from a promotion that rewarded fans with a voucher for pizza if the Rays pitchers struck out 10 or more batters during a game. When the 10th whiff was recorded, Reynolds would run down the aisle in his section waving a flag that said “pizza.” And then, during a trip to Nashville, he found a beret that looked like a pizza.

It was a perfect fit.

“It seemed to me that adding a bit of ham (uh huh) on the pizza furthered people’s enjoyment of the promotion,” Reynolds writes. “People would laugh and even some wanted to take a picture of that goofy Fan Host with the pizza flag and hat on his head.”

Reynolds is not as agile anymore since having knee surgery after the 2019 season, but his enthusiasm remains high.

Showing his love for the Rays, beginning in 2012 Reynolds composed a poem recapping the team’s season, calling them “Reynolds Raps.” Excerpts are included in his book.

Reynolds is an enthusiastic writer, and his passion soaks through his prose. While charming, the book could have used a sharper eye for editing. As a lifelong copy editor, I saw several instances where a few edits would have been appropriate. And please, no “LOL” mentions in your narrative.

Reynolds also refers to the first professional umpire as William McClean, when his last name was “McLean.”
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Honestly, between the poetry and grammatical flubs, Reynolds is probably correct when he notes that “Probably my former English teachers and professors would cringe knowing I was once their student.”

But just as honestly, Reynolds has presented a fun read about a job that many baseball fans take for granted. He and Jeannette, high school sweethearts who have been married since the mid-1970s, project that love when they lead fans through the “vomitory” — “yep, that’s what the passageway that allows people to enter or leave the field view of Tropicana Field is called.”

Their passion for the game is apparent and real — “Finding out we would get paid was a pleasant shock,” Reynolds writes.

“These past 16 years have only increased my love of ‘America’s Past Time’ while also becoming emotionally involved in the lives of fans and fellow Fan Hosts who have become my baseball ‘family,’” he writes.

No matter what team loyalty a fan may have, There Is No Place Like Dome provides a cool behind-the-scenes look at what makes attending a baseball game at Tropicana Field so much fun.

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about speedster Herb Washington, the designated runner for the Oakland A's during the 1974 season and the early part of 1975:

​www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/1975-topps-herb-washington-remembering-baseballs-original-designated-pinch-runner/

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about Beckett filing a civil suit against two Texas residents who were arrested and charged in an extensive autograph fraud case:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/beckett-files-civil-suit-against-duo-arrested-in-large-fake-autograph-case/

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the continuing saga of dueling lawsuits between Fanatics and Panini  America:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/judge-rules-that-dueling-lawsuits-between-panini-fanatics-should-proceed/

Baseball fans are fortunate to have Art Shamsky as a friend.

Mets fans should be especially grateful. Shamsky, 83, a member of the “Miracle” New York Mets who won the 1969 World Series, has written a new book that provides an intimate look at the squad that shocked the baseball world 56 years ago.
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Mets Stories I Only Tell My Friends (Triumph Books; $30; hardback; 240 pages) allows Shamsky to share anecdotes and observations about his career and the teammates who played for the ’69 Mets.

​Other books have done the same, but from an outsider’s point of view. Shamsky, with the help of writer-editor Matthew Silverman, puts the reader into the locker room and into the minds of the Mets as they blossomed into champions. It is a fascinating look and a great way to meet the Mets.
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“The 1969 Mets were a bolt of lightning, and that ’69 team is the Miracle team that people talk about more than half a century later,” Shamsky writes.

Shamsky already has written two books about the ’69 Mets — 2004’s The Magnificent Seasons: How the Mets, Jets and Knicks Made Sports History and Uplifted a City and the Country, with Barry Zeman; and 2019’s After the Miracle: The Lasting Brotherhood of the ’69 Mets, a warm, sentimental retrospective that was co-written with Erik Sherman.

Certainly, the Mets winning it all in 1969 was nothing short of a miracle. The ragtag franchise, which debuted in 1962 with 120 losses and had never finished better than ninth place in the National League, was suddenly on top of the baseball world.

The 2024 Chicago White Sox took over the major league record for futility with 121 losses, but it is doubtful that fans in the future will view that squad with the same warmth afforded to the ’62 Mets. The Mets did not escape the N.L. cellar until 1966, when they finished ninth in the 10-team league. In 1968 they finished ninth again, squeezing past the Houston Astros by a game and winning a then-team record 73 games.

The 1969 season would be different. The Mets caught fire in midsummer and roared past the Chicago Cubs to win the N.L. East by eight games during MLB’s first season of divisional play, finishing with a 100-62 record. Then they swept the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS and stunned the Baltimore Orioles in a World Series that went five games.

When Shamsky was traded from the Cincinnati Reds to New York after the 1967 season, he mistakenly thought he was headed to the Yankees. General manager Bob Howsam told him it was the Mets.

“I thought, ‘Oh, no,’” Shamsky writes.

But when Gil Hodges took over as manager of the Mets in 1968, Shamsky realized a change was in the air.

“You could see he was a no-nonsense guy after one sentence,” Shamsky writes, adding that he had an “arm’s length relationship” with Hodges and only had three substantive conversations with him between 1968 and 1971. But he had plenty of respect for Hodges.

“His way of managing was getting everyone involved. Everyone on that team felt like an integral part of the whole,” Shamsky writes. “And yet on a personal level, Gil was tough.

“I avoided him as much as possible. … He wasn’t going to waste a lot of words on us.”
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Shamsky devotes bite-sized stories about each coach and player and recaps the 1969 season. Donn Clendenon’s role, in addition to his potent bat, was his veteran leadership and ability to needle every player — relentlessly, Shamsky writes.

He writes about Tom Seaver’s near perfect game on July 9, and the Aug. 14 came when a black cat sauntered in front of the Cubs’ dugout at Shea Stadium. And about the Mets taking a crack at singing on “The Amazing Mets,” a 1969 release by Buddah Records recorded the day after the team clinched the division title. The record featured Shamsky and 25 of his teammates.

The record cover was unusual for its formality. Shamsky was listed as “Arthur,” and all of the players’ given first names were printed on the cover. Who refers to Duffy Dyer as “Don”? Or Bud Harrelson as “Darrell” (Even though his first name was actually “Derrel”)? Or Tug McGraw as “Frank,” and J.C. Martin as “Joseph”?

Who were those guys? Lawrence Berra, not Yogi? C’mon. Besides, “Thomas” Seaver’s first name was George.

Seven of the Mets, including Shamsky, were invited to perform at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas after their win against the Orioles. The group rehearsed for three days, and then did two shows daily for 17 days. That's show business.

“What a fantastic time,” Shamsky writes.


Speaking of business, Shamsky writes about the business of splitting World Series shares among the players, coaches and staff members.


“You learn a lot about people on the day of this meeting,” he notes. “Sometimes these meetings get heated; sometimes they are smooth.”

Shamsky noted that while the players on the active 25-man roster, coaches and managers each receive a full share, considerations also given to groundskeepers, bat boys, the traveling secretary and batting practice pitchers, to name a few.

“Yet you always have some players complain about sharing the money they’re going to earn,” Shamsky writes.
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It is a tidbit that Shamsky just leaves hanging. The reader does not find out what decisions were made.

But his observations about his teammates are enlightening. Reliever Ron Taylor, who had a degree in electrical engineering and later became a doctor, was “a fascinating character.”

Shamsky’s roommate, Ken Boswell, and teammates Wayne Garrett and Rod Gaspar, appeared on an episode of The Dating Game several weeks after the World Series.

Gaspar was chosen by Lynette Marvin to be her date.

“I never let Boswell or Garrett forget that Gaspar was picked,” Shamsky wrote. “Rod didn’t have a whole lot of personality, and he beat Garrett and Boswell, who together couldn’t make one personality!”

Shamsky also got into television with first baseman Ed Kranepool, as they appeared on an episode of Sesame Street.

The best anecdote in the book involved Hodges’ son. Shamsky and Boswell were in Los Angeles and were invited to a beach party by the Dodgers’ Ken Boyer.

The two Mets asked Gil Hodges Jr. if he wanted to tag along. The younger Hodges—who turns 75 on March 12 — was 19 at the time.

“Even as we were talking to Gilly about the party, we knew we shouldn’t be asking him if he wanted to go, for obvious reasons,” Shamsky writes. “But we did anyway. I guess we liked to live dangerously!”

The players had a midnight curfew and had rented a car to get to the beach. At about 11 p.m., the younger Hodges asked the players about the curfew and was told to come back in 15 minutes. However, Gilly did not return for two hours. The players, knowing they were already in trouble, gave him the keys to the rental car and told him to return to the team hotel.

Hodges Jr. went to the room he shared with his father, and Hodges Sr. got a call at about 3 a.m., telling him that he needed to move the car he just parked. He told his son, who had come back to the room 30 minutes earlier, to “go take care of this.”

Father and son talked the next day, and the manager laid down the law. “I don’t know want to know who they were, but I never want you going out with any players again.”

Shamsky said he never publicly told the story or wrote about it while his manager and his wife were alive. When Joan Hodges died in 2022, Shamsky thought the time was right to tell the tale and Hodges Jr. agreed.

“Why not tell the story now? What difference does it make?” Shamsky writes. “They can’t fine me … Gilly’s not going to get in trouble.

“I think waiting to tell the story until now goes a long way toward our respect for — and fear of — Gil as a manager.”

Shamsky writes about the time in spring training when McGraw decided to show off his ambidextrous skills against a switch-hitting batter — with predictably hilarious results.
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He also writes about life after his baseball career, when he was a sportscaster, a podcaster, a talent agent and a partner running a restaurant in New York City.
And he writes in great detail about pulling together a 25th anniversary celebration of the 1969 Mets. He partnered with attorney Ed Schauder beginning in 1993 to make it happen.

“Art’s passion for preserving the team’s history was unprecedented,” Schauder, an attorney at Nason Yeager Gerson Harris and Fumero, said in a telephone interview this week. “He opened doors, he worked his butt off.

“He was the glue that kept (the players) all together.”

Schauder said that he and Shamsky worked “from the bottom up” to secure commitments from Mets players from 1969, starting with the utility and bench players and working up to the main stars, like Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver.
Schauder also convinced Shamsky to run the Art of Hitting, a clinic that the former player ran in the New York City area. Schauder got Shamsky booked onto The Joe Franklin Show, a late-night talk show in the Big Apple. The other guest that night? Captain Lou Albano, the infamous pro wrestling manager.

Shamsky gave Franklin a T-shirt that had Schauder’s telephone number on it, touting the Art of Hitting. Neither knew that the response would be so sudden.

“Callers would think it was me and say to Ed, ‘Hi Art, I want to take your class,’” Shamsky writes.

“It was 2 in the morning and some guy named Jerry Finkel calls and says, ‘I’d like to take batting lessons,’” Schauder said. “I said, ‘Right now?’”

Shamsky also returned to the baseball diamond full time, managing in the Israeli Baseball League in 2007.

Shamsky, who played eight seasons in the majors and batted .300 during the miracle season of 1969, has plenty of stories to tell — and he tells them well. His anecdotes in Mets Stories I Only Tell My Friends are fun, sentimental, informative and humorous. He also makes a point about his own career, regretting that he quit the game too soon.

“If this is a book about things I tell my friends, I’ll say this again, because it’s important,” Shamsky writes. “Work harder, and don’t be satisfied. It all goes quickly.”

But the memories of the 1969 Mets will not go away so quickly. Shamsky's latest work makes sure of that.

Here is a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the Masters badge collection of Marcus Burnell. The collection includes a ticket from the inaugural tournament signed by 13 participants: 

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/badge-of-honor-ticket-from-1934-masters-is-jewel-of-marcus-burnells-collection/

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily previewing the upcoming release of the 2024 Topps Heritage High Number set. It is scheduled to be released on March 26:

​www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/2024-topps-heritage-high-number-coming-this-month/