A treasure-trove of memorabilia

Collector turns basement into four-room sports museum

By Linda Bock Telegram & Gazettame Staff


MENDON— A lot of kids collect baseball cards, and since he’s still a kid at heart, Philip G. Dunlavey is still collecting them — and, oh, autographed baseballs, pennants, mitts, hockey pucks, mugs, posters, 1946 team photos, original souvenir programs from the 1950s, ticket stubs, popcorn containers from Yankee Stadium — anytime and any way he can.

Since the 1960s, Mr. Dunlavey has collected so much sports memorabilia, in fact, he is now the proud curator of a four-room sports museum in the basement of his home.

Of course, he has balls autographed by baseball greats Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio in his sports memorabilia museum, but he also has thousands of other exhibits. Practically every square-inch of space from the carpeted floors to the ceilings is used to show off a prized collection of sports-related treasures, with the memories attached.


“Memories,” Mr. Dunlavey said. “It’s different things that reach your heart.”

Different things struck his heart early on, but anything to do with the Boston Red Sox-New York Yankee rivalry tops the favorites in his collection.

“There’s two teams I love,” Mr. Dunlavey said. “The Red Sox and the team who beats the Yankees.”

Mr. Dunlavey said he also loves what most Red Sox fans love: “I’m talking about the biggest choke of any professional sports,” Mr. Dunlavey said, fondly recalling the Red Sox-Yankees series in 2004, in which the Red Sox were down three games to none in a best-of-seven playoff series, and came from being on the verge of a humiliating sweep by their arch rivals, to beating them 4 games to 3 for the American League Championship. And, of course, they went on to break an 86-year-old drought by winning the World Series with a four-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Mr. Dunlavey is a police officer in Mendon. He has served on the department since 1977. His father, Patrick E. Dunlavey, was the town’s first full-time police chief.

Mr. Dunlavey said a lot of family and friends have toured the museum.

Visitors are impressed by the authenticated dirt he has from the infield at Fenway, stored in a medallion; a red flannel Red Sox pennant from the 1940s and a ball signed by “Big Papi,” David Ortiz. Schmaltzy organ music by longtime Fenway organist John Kiley greets visitors to this museum via a mannequin head sporting an old-fashioned, authentic usher’s cap. Ushers at Fenway used to dress more formally. A flip of the switch on the mannequin plays Mr. Kiley’s recording of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Mr. Kiley passed away in 1993.

Mr. Dunlavey has Jackie Robinson’s 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers baseball card, a baseball signed by former Cincinnati Reds star Pete Rose and memorabilia from former Chicago Cub and Hall-of-Famer Gabby Hartnett, who was born in Rhode Island.

The museum also contains a football signed by New England Patriots Tom Brady, Richard Seymour and Deion Branch, and autographed basketball, hockey, boxing, golf and soccer collectibles.

Though Mr. Dunlavey, 50, loves most aspects of sports, he is troubled by the recent revelations about steroid abuse. He thinks the statistics are tainted by players who use steroids to increase their performance, and that players of yesteryear were better players.

“I talked to Johnny Pesky,” Mr. Dunlavey said. “What could you take back then? An aspirin?”

Not only do the steroids adversely affect the health of the players, they adversely affect fans by falsely inflating the prices they must pay for tickets, Mr. Dunlavey maintained.

“Steroids take away the innocence of the game,” he said.

Though the primary reason Mr. Dunlavey collects playing cards and sports memorabilia is for the joy of it, there may be another motive to keep on collecting.

Mr. Dunlavey said his collectibles may someday finance college educations for his children. He and his wife, Helen R. Dunlavey, have adopted a girl from China and are awaiting word they can return to that country to adopt another child.

Mr. Dunlavey is not alone in this grownup sport of collecting sports memorabilia.

Wayne Tuiskula of the Cherry Valley section of Leicester is an auctioneer, a dealer in antiques and an avid baseball fan. As part of his business, Central Mass. Auctions Inc., he occasionally comes across baseball memorabilia for his personal collection. He owns two game programs from Worcester’s great minor league teams of the early 20th century.

Mr. Tuiskula also has collected the program from the Worcester Tornadoes inaugural game last year.“Collecting playing cards is still a nice hobby for kids,” Mr. Tuiskula said. For adults who collect the older and rarer items, he said, those items are keeping up their values.

“People collect so many different things,” Mr. Dunlavey said. “I think it’s neat.”