N.Y. Times: Sandomir: You Can’t Just Blow Up History (RR)

No, but you can get Bert Sugar to star in an Antonioni film…

The growth of the memorabilia market is a guarantee against the apathy the Yankees exhibited during the mid-1970s renovation. Back then, Bert Sugar, the author and sports historian, took a fleet of U-Haul trucks to the Bronx to tote away seats, signs, turnstiles, the door to the manager’s shower, Jacob Ruppert’s archive and a bag with Babe Ruth’s underwear.

Sugar, who was working on the Yankees account for an advertising agency, said he got a call from the team asking if he wanted to rummage through the 50-year trove. “So I laid two checks on Gene McHale’s desk,” he said, referring to the Yankees’ treasurer at the time. “One was to look around, the other was if I liked what I saw.”

He added: “I went into rooms that hadn’t been opened in years. They saw me dragging things out, getting emphysema from the rooms underneath. The dust went back to 1923.” Sugar said he brokered the deal in which E. J. Korvettes sold seats for $7.50 and five Winston cigarette packs.

“I don’t think George Steinbrenner knew what he had,” Sugar said, adding that he recalled the team offering seats free to those who proved they held season tickets.