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NORTH SALT LAKE -- Fans of the New York Yankees are still celebrating Wednesday night's World Series win. It's the 27th time the Yankees have become baseball's world champs.
New York native, and now North Salt Lake resident, Bob Albertelli is a life-long Yankee fan and had a houseful of Yankee fans watching the game at his house Wednesday night.
Albertelli had no doubt that his Yanks would beat the Phillies and win the series.
"Oh, I had some doubts because they've got a great club, but I was confident that the Yankees were going to win," he says.
Albertelli has an interesting memorabilia collection. Though he says he was never really a "serious" collector, he certainly has some gems.
One example: a dog-eared edition of the New York Daily News from 1956, which highlights Yankee pitcher Don Larsen's perfect game--the only perfect game in World Series history.
And then there are some autographed baseballs. Some he collected, and there are several from the mid 1930s that he got from his father. Albertelli can point out the names of seven Hall of Famers who signed one ball.
"There's Babe Ruth, Jimmy Foxx, Mel Ott, Carl Hubbell and Lou Gehrig," he showed us.
Perhaps his most interesting item is a book titled "Babe Ruth's Baseball Advice." It's an instructional book for kids. And his dad, Bruno, is pictured as a youngster with "The Babe" throughout the book.
"Yeah," Albertelli says, "he was one of the models, so to speak. He was one of two models; Ruth used two young men. The other person I don't know. I never met him. But my father was in almost all the pictures."
Albertelli's dad worked for Ruth and was a life-long friend. The book was a mystery, though, as his father never mentioned it.
"No. I doubt that he knew about it," Albertelli says.
Neither did he, until a relative bought it for 25 cents at a used book sale about 20 years ago. It's worth a lot more now, no doubt. As is an original autographed photo that Ruth gave to Albertelli's dad in 1930. It hangs on Albertelli's wall.
As for the current day Yankees, Albertelli is thrilled with their victory and can't wait for spring training to begin in about four months.
E-mail: kmccord@ksl.com
