As the baseball season gets underway, many of us begin thinking of what sports valuables we may have hidden in a large box in the attic or in the basement. Possibly there is some valuable card in a file cabinet, or for sure, in an old shoebox. You just know that you have something stored away that you know will be the next major find. Whatever you have in that unopened box will make headlines across the country. Guess what? You probably won’t find anything, and if you do, those old baseball cards won’t be worth much.

       But you never know. No, you don’t. Your discovery just might be worth a little money, say a few hundred thousand dollars or even more. That’s right. There are a few sports items that have not yet been discovered that are worth a small fortune.

        But you need to know that you are looking for, so that when you come across one of these jewels in your basement, you will know what you have and you can tell your boss that you are quitting. And since this is baseball season, lets just focus on baseball goodies.

        Let's start with Jackie Robinson’s first bat, back in 1947. For those of you unfamiliar with Jackie Robinson, he was the first African American player to play in the Major Leagues. The General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey, was looking for just the right player to break the color barrier, and he found that player in Robinson. Robinson, who lettered in four sports at UCLA, was a second baseman with enormous talent, and the temperament to endure the constant heckling. He played several seasons for the Dodgers, up until the time the Dodgers wanted to trade him to their hated enemy the New York Giants, in exchange for pitcher Dick Littlefield. Robinson retired at that point, and later became a champion in the Civil Rights movement. If you go to any Major League park, his number 42 will be displayed as a retired number of that home team. Every Major League team has retired his number.

        Not to be lost in all the hoopla that Robinson was the first African American player, is the fact that he was an exceptionally good baseball player, an All Star by anyone’s standards.

         So where is the bat that Jackie Robinson used in his debut on April 15, 1947? It is a pretty safe bet to say that no one on the field that day had any idea of the impact that Robinson’s playing would have on the game of baseball and on American society. Sure, players and fans alike knew that baseball would be changing, but not to the degree that it has.

         So again, I ask, where is the bat that Jackie Robinson first used in his opening game on April 15, 1947? Could it be the bat that you have lying around that your father gave you? But oh, by the way, don’t quit your day job yet.