Ruth, Dimaggio help man recapture youth East Brunswick collector selling off Yankees memorabilia BY SETH MANDEL Staff Writer FARRAH MAFFAI staff Harvey Wildstein jokes about his “low resistance” when it comes to baseball collectibles. EAST BRUNSWICK — A stroll down memory lane with Harvey Wildstein can seem more like a marathon down the nostalgia turnpike. A storage room filled with baseball memorabilia goes on forever. That’s just fine, for any real baseball fan. “It got out of hand,” Wildstein said of his propensity to buy baseball bats, baseballs, cards, photographs and figurines with the autographs of the game’s legends, as well as any player currently donning Yankees pinstripes. “I’ll buy ’em. Whether I need them or not is irrelevant. I just buy ’em.” FARRAH MAFFAI staff A Babe Ruth photo, framed with his signature, is Wildstein’s favorite. Wildstein grew up in Brooklyn, but was drawn to the crosstown rival New York Yankees. “Everybody was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and I just happened to like Joe Dimaggio, so I became a Yankees fan,” Wildstein said, adding that his love for the Yankees fulfilled one of the three interests shared by his peers. “In Brooklyn, when you grow up, there’s three main things in your life: sports, girls and gambling,” he said. FARRAH MAFFAI staff Signed baseballs and baseball cards are among the most common items in Harvey Wildstein’s expansive collection of baseball memorabilia. But Wildstein found a way to combine at least two of those passions. “We were kids, we gambled a lot, and I always bet, of course, [on] the Yankees when they played the Brooklyn Dodgers,” he said, recalling his repeated success, and how, when his Yankees lost, he avoided losing big by coincidentally moving out of state. FARRAH MAFFAI staff One of Wildstein’s favorites is a signed photo of Mickey Mantle, who wrote down some of his own stats in silver ink. “In 1955, when the Brooklyn Dodgers finally beat the Yankees in the World Series, I [had already] moved to Vineland. So I didn’t get any bets in or anything. I had just left that year when they finally beat the Yankees for the first time.” Wildstein opened a bakery in Vineland, the first of two such shops he would own. Though betting on the Yankees may have won him some money during his childhood, Wildstein’s love for the team helped him win something even more valuable. “We met over a Yankee game, on the beach many years ago,” said Wildstein’s wife, Frances. She was sitting on the beach in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, with a few friends, she said, when Wildstein overheard the Yankee game being broadcast on her radio and sat down next to her. “We were sitting, just a group of guys and gals. I was probably a senior in high school, and I thought he knew the boys, but he didn’t. He brazenly sat down,” Frances said. The two talked and Wildstein asked her out, and they have now been married 47 years. They moved to East Brunswick 27 years ago, where Wildstein continued to amass so much memorabilia that he is now selling some of it. “I have to. I have no alternative,” Wildstein said. “I have nowhere to put it.” Wildstein doesn’t like to stand on line for autographs, so he usually obtains the autographs through reliable dealers, at times traveling all over the country to find them. “They call me, and they know my resistance is very low,” he said. “That is my problem. My resistance is very, very low when it comes to anything I can collect in baseball.” But Wildstein makes sure the items come with a certificate of authenticity, although that isn’t always as simple as it sounds. He points to an autographed picture of Babe Ruth. “It got a Field of Dreams authentication,” Wildstein said. “That got a book of forensic DNA.” All the traveling may seem arduous, but Wildstein wouldn’t have it any other way. “It’s a labor of love for me,” he said. “You know what it does? This stuff brings back your youth, that’s what it does. It really brings back your youth. Because you grew up with these ballplayers and all this, and to this day I’m a big Yankees fan.” Wildstein reminisced about what it was like to be a baseball fan when he was a kid, and what the players were like when they were making $5,000 a year instead of $5 million a year. “The ballplayers, when I was growing up, they had to work in the wintertime to make ends meet,” he said. “The Brooklyn Dodgers, they traveled by subway to get to Ebbets Field. They related to the common person, and that’s why we related to them because we were on the same level, and that’s the great difference now — a lot of the young ballplayers think they’re above the fans.” Wildstein said that when fans would say hello to Micky Mantle, Mantle would smile and return the greeting. “Mantle was a different kind of person,” he said. Despite the size of his collection, Wildstein does have a few favorites. Hanging on one wall of the storeroom is a picture of Willie Mays making a play that baseball historians simply refer to as “The Catch,” signed by Mays himself. During the eighth inning of game one of the 1954 World Series between the New York Giants and the Cleveland Indians, Mays made an over-the-shoulder basket catch in deep centerfield, preventing two runs from scoring and preserving the tie score. Mays’ Giants went on to win the game and the series. He also has a photograph of Micky Mantle on which Mantle not only signed his name, but wrote a few of his statistics as well. He also loves the autographed picture of Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez together, and the autographed picture of David Cone celebrating after he threw a no-hitter, but admits that he is partial to the picture of Ruth. “It’s just something from the past. It’s part of a youth that you look back on, and the good times you had, and it brings back great memories,” he said. “It makes you nostalgic about the whole situation.” Wildstein’s daughter, Gail Rizick, said her father’s hobby has given him a unique connection to the team, as well as a stronger bond as a fan. “My father always dreamed he’d be a Yankee player. Sometimes I think he thinks he was a Yankee playe; he’s just living out his dream in a different way,” she said, adding that Wildstein has even convinced Rizick’s 6-year-old daughter, Arynn, that he played for the Yankees. Wildstein said that his frequent visits to his baseball treasury can snap him out of any funk and restore his youthful energy that seems to be contained in the relics. “Sports was always the main thing growing up as a child, and I’m still into it,” he said. “Here I am, 70 years old, and I’m still into it. I don’t know if it keeps me young or what, but I always feel young.” He said his collection has the same effect on just about everyone that visits it, and that it serves as an infallible pick-me-up to him and his friends. “See, that’s my life,” he said. “It’s very good, I enjoy it, and people appreciate it too. Because you know that they have the same feeling. It brings back their youth, it brings back nostalgia, it brings back memories. And what is life all about? When you come to the end, what is life all about?” The look on Wildstein’s face betrays that he is going to answer the question himself. “Being happy and having memories,” he said, beaming. “What else is there in life?” Wildstein’s infectious appreciation and the effort he puts into supporting his beloved Yankees has spread beyond his circle of friends, according to New York Yankees spokesman Jason Zillo. “You know, he shares in the passion that a lot of people do, and he’s been around long enough to see a lot of great Yankees teams. We’re glad he’s on our side,” Zillo said. Even with all the autographed photographs, bats, baseballs, figurines and cards, Wildstein’s life would never be complete without his family, he said. His smile grows even wider as he talks about his loving wife, his two daughters, and his grandchildren. As he spoke of his family and glanced at his memorabilia, Wildstein was once again poised to pose another of his rhetorical questions. “Hey,” he said, flashing that knowing smile, “What else do I need?” Anyone wishing to contact Wildstein about his collection can call him at (848) 203-4259. Wildstein said that his frequent visits to his baseball treasury can snap him out of any funk and restore his youthful energy that seems to be contained in the relics. “Sports was always the main thing growing up as a child, and I’m still into it,” he said. “Here I am, 70 years old, and I’m still into it. I don’t know if it keeps me young or what, but I always feel young.” He said his collection has the same effect on just about everyone that visits it, and that it serves as an infallible pick-me-up to him and his friends. “See, that’s my life,” he said. “It’s very good, I enjoy it, and people appreciate it too. Because you know that they have the same feeling. It brings back their youth, it brings back nostalgia, it brings back memories. And what is life all about? When you come to the end, what is life all about?” The look on Wildstein’s face betrays that he is going to answer the question himself. “Being happy and having memories,” he said, beaming. “What else is there in life?” Wildstein’s infectious appreciation and the effort he puts into supporting his beloved Yankees has spread beyond his circle of friends, according to New York Yankees spokesman Jason Zillo. “You know, he shares in the passion that a lot of people do, and he’s been around long enough to see a lot of great Yankees teams. We’re glad he’s on our side,” Zillo said. Even with all the autographed photographs, bats, baseballs, figurines and cards, Wildstein’s life would never be complete without his family, he said. His smile grows even wider as he talks about his loving wife, his two daughters, and his grandchildren. As he spoke of his family and glanced at his memorabilia, Wildstein was once again poised to pose another of his rhetorical questions. “Hey,” he said, flashing that knowing smile, “What else do I need?” Anyone wishing to contact Wildstein about his collection can call him at (848) 203-4259. friends, according to New York Yankees spokesman Jason Zillo. “You know, he shares in the passion that a lot of people do, and he’s been around long enough to see a lot of great Yankees teams. We’re glad he’s on our side,” Zillo said. Even with all the autographed photographs, bats, baseballs, figurines and cards, Wildstein’s life would never be complete without his family, he said. His smile grows even wider as he talks about his loving wife, his two daughters, and his grandchildren. As he spoke of his family and glanced at his memorabilia, Wildstein was once again poised to pose another of his rhetorical questions. “Hey,” he said, flashing that knowing smile, “What else do I need?” Anyone wishing to contact Wildstein about his collection can call him at (848) 203-4259.