Babe Waxpak

Dear Babe: I have a ticket stub from the Feb. 25, 1964, fight between Sonny Liston and Cassius Clay (now Muhammad Ali) in Miami. I was there with my father -- really exciting.

-- Bob McGrath, Redding, Calif.

Dear Babe: My grandfather passed away several years ago and left me a box of baseballs. One is a New York Yankees baseball covered with signatures. Here are some I can make out: Casey Stengel and Mickey Mantle on the sweet spot; Whitey Ford, Billy Martin, Vic Raschi, Johnny Mize and Steve Kraly. -- Kent Tierney, Pleasanton, Calif.

Kraly was only with the Yankees at the tail end of the 1953 season, so that dates the ball.

Dear Babe: I recently came across a 32-page program for Major League Baseball Opening Day in Los Angeles April 18, 1958, and was just curious as to whether you thought anyone might find it interesting. This game was against the San Francisco Giants. I kept the box score showing the inning-by-inning field activity and scoring. which the Dodgers won, 6-5.

Taped inside the front page was a ticket stub for Tuesday, April 22, 1958, a game against the Chicago Cubs. The ticket price was $1.50. (Obviously not a box seat. It was near the top row of the Coliseum in center field, as far from home plate as one could get.) -- Darrell Burrell, Redding, Calif.

Dear Babe: My dad kept a lot of booklets about sports skills from the 1920s put out by various manufacturers of shoes and equipment. They include several different copies of "Keds Handbook of Sports." -- Jeff Jones, Shingletown, Calif.

Some of these in top condition might be worth as much as $250. Based on the photocopies you enclosed, Mike Heffner, president of www.Lelands.com auction house in New York, said handbooks such as yours are worth around $25 each because of their condition. "Some are worth a little more, some a little less," Heffner said.

Dear Babe: You have written about the first and second issues of Sports Illustrated. Do you happen to know the print run of these two magazines? -- Roland Garn, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Dear Roland: It's nice to get a change of pace about the first issues of Sports Illustrated, dated Aug. 16 and 23, 1954.

As far as Da Babe can tell, no one has really tried to figure out approximately how many issues are out there. I was told that the first two magazines went to subscribers of Time and Life, which would mean millions of copies went out.

Dear Babe: I have been collecting the Baseball Hall of Fame induction bats for decades. The bats are issued by the National Baseball Hall of Fame each year to honor each year's inductees. Each year, the HOF sells 500 during induction weekend; the other 500 are sold to a sold-out subscriber list. I've been a subscriber since the inception of the program.

Dear Babe: We have a Bond Bread Jackie Robinson card that was found in my father's things a few years ago. It appears to have always been covered and protected. It depicts Robinson leaping from a base to maybe catch a ball, though there seems to be a ball in his mitt already. It has art on the back, and what may be a simulated signature. The back says: "Homogenized Bond makes a hit with me every time." Then his "signature." There is an open loaf of bread. In the bottom third, there is a baby and a "talk" bubble that reads: "Folks, why not eat the bread that Jackie eats? Homogenized Bond!" -- Alice Phillips, Detroit