Special MLB fraternity on display in unique baseball collection

The baseball cards were the first thing that caught my eye – in particular, the colors and styles of cards I remember collecting as a kid.

“I’m sure I had this one … and that one … and that one,” I told Larry Norton as I perused his unique collection, a flood of memories coming with each card I saw, at least those from my childhood. I could almost taste the slab of chalky chewing gum that came with each pack of cards back in the day.

But this wasn’t a baseball card collection. The cards were a part of it – a sort of introduction to each piece of this perfect puzzle.

No, this is about autographed baseballs. And not just any autographed baseballs.

Norton, of Milford, may have the only collection of baseballs autographed by every No. 1 overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft since the draft’s inception in 1965.

The baseballs – all 57 of them – are in individual glass cases, each fronted by the player’s rookie card, and part of a grand display that is the centerpiece of Norton’s home office.

It’s an interesting mix of players who lived up to the can’t-miss status attached to being the No. 1 overall pick and those who did not. But how the collection started rather inconspicuously about a decade ago and was finally completed (well, the draft is held annually, so it will never really be complete) might be as interesting as the collection itself.

Play ball

My visit to see Norton’s collection came just two days before the hometown Cincinnati Reds’ iconic opening day. Yes, baseball is relevant again. You can feel it at Great American Ball Park and, on a smaller scale, at places like the Reds Hall of Fame at the park and any place where the history of the game is on display.

Norton’s home office included.

“It’s a good time of the year to think about this. Everyone is excited about opening day,” Norton said.

He smiles contently as he looks over his collection, but for Norton, this is more about his love for the game of baseball than the baseballs that seem to be about everywhere you turn in this space. Yes, he’s been at this collection thing for a decade-plus, but at the end of the day, it’s just a hobby – a way to stay connected with the game he loves and has for most of his 60 years on this planet.

He grew up in Michigan, a Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs fan (he explains that, growing up in western Michigan, he could pick up Cubs games at night on the radio – and who didn’t root for the then-woeful Cubbies back in the day?). He was an avid baseball player as a kid and the heavily worn Jim Palmer-signed baseball glove of his youth is propped atop the case that houses his baseball collection, along with baseball mementos from even longer ago. He moved from Michigan to the Cincinnati area in 1999 and says he’s become a bit of a Reds fan. But everything on the walls and atop the shelves of the collection speaks of his Michigan roots.

It would be difficult to envision this room without the collection, though – everything else is mostly ornamental. Still, the collection was never meant to be the center of attention. Along with baseball, it still really isn’t.

“It (the collection) has been more about the family aspect than anything – I have my faith, my family, and then baseball,” and in that order, he said of his priorities in life. “You’ve got to have your priorities straight. It has to start with faith, then family. But everyone has a hobby.”

Reaching first base

The collection started even before Norton knew it would be, well, a collection. In December of 2011, Norton’s brother, John, called his older brother from a benefit auction in Michigan. On display and up for bidding was an autographed Ken Griffey Jr. baseball. Griffey played in Cincinnati from 2000-2008, so his brother thought Larry Norton might be interested in the ball. Up until then, Larry Norton had been a small collector of baseball cards and other sports memorabilia.

John Norton purchased the ball for $105 for his brother. But it wasn’t like this was, in Larry Norton’s mind, the start of anything, much less a 10-plus year journey. No, it wasn’t until after his brother called him from another such event about an autographed Joe Mauer baseball that was up for auction that something clicked.

“That second ball is what really germinated the idea,” Norton told his brother, a retired journalist. “I knew that both Ken Griffey Jr. and Joe Mauer were number one overall picks – I just knew that. That stimulated the idea, and then you think, ‘Who else is a number one pick?’ Then you Google it and start looking at the list. That’s what started the whole thing.”

So he set out on this journey, which included trips to various auctions and collector shows – including one at nearby Moeller High School, where Griffey went to high school and played baseball – and hours spent online looking for that next ball.

“I didn’t know if it was really possible or not, but let’s see if I can do it,” Larry Norton said of the endeavor. “I went to a national show and picked up seven or eight balls and that kind of jump-started it. These balls are out there. Then my wife and some of my kids gave them to me. Then it became, ‘Can we can get the last four or five?’ They weren’t signing like other guys did.

“I didn’t really know. I just started doing it,” added Norton, a finance professional who eventually created an elaborate Excel spreadsheet with pertinent information about each player, as well as notes about the cost of each ball and when and how he got them. “Once you get a dozen or whatever you see you have these holes. It’s what keeps you going – to fill these holes. And I was trying to not break the bank doing this.”

According to that spreadsheet, the total cost of the collection has been about $2,500, which averages out to around $50 per ball – but less than that for Norton as a good number of them were gifts.

“So for a 10-year period, $250 a year is not too bad,” he said of the yearly average spent on the collection. “It’s fun just to keep your eye out. I’ve never been a big signature guy. I sort of fell into this. But once my brother got me accidentally started, it was a goal to get it done.”

Rounding third and headed home

Norton said he doesn’t have any real favorites in the collection. But there are a few that involve better stories – in particular, the last few needed to complete the collection; they were the most difficult to find.

“Besides newer ones (recent No. 1 overall picks), which are easy, the last one I got was Dave Roberts,” Norton recalled of the ball he finally obtained in July 2020 to complete the collection (minus those from future drafts). “That was a very hard one.

“Anytime I tried to Google it or look for it, I’d find the manager,” he said of Dave Roberts the current manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers. But that Dave Roberts was born in 1972 – the year the Dave Roberts in Norton’s collection was drafted No. 1 overall by the San Diego Padres. “That’s the one I had to reach out for.”

Most of those who didn’t make much of a name for themselves in the big leagues, particularly the older ones, seemed to be the most difficult to track down. But fortunately for Norton and his collection, all those former No. 1s were still alive. In fact, Norton believes every overall No. 1 pick is still with us today. And while there are just as many busts as there are household names in this elite fraternity, most at least made it to the majors, Norton said.

“There are only a couple that never made it to the majors. One is the second guy (the second overall No. 1, in 1966), Steve Chilcott,” Norton said. “That was the first one I sent away for. He got injured, I think, sliding into second base. He was a catcher and never made it past Double A. And then the pitcher for the Yankees, Brien Taylor (the No. 1 pick in 1991) … “He got injured defending his brother in a fight at home in North Carolina and never made the show.

“I believe they’re still all alive, although there are some that have had some trouble. Then there are the guys who really never panned out. I think that’s as interesting as anything. It’s a diverse group … it spans from a long time ago to now and with different levels of performance.”

So now with the collection, it’s just a matter of keeping up with the MLB draft each year.

“It gives me a reason to pay attention and see who is No. 1. Once I know who it is, I’ll look online to see if there are balls out there already,” Norton said. “I look for value. I don’t want to spend a huge amount. Once it’s announced that they’re No. 1, the value probably goes up, too.”

Norton hopes that the collection will be handed down to one of his children, then a grandchild and so on. To him, that’s the value of this thing: family and the family’s shared love for the great American pastime.

“There’s no big monetary value, it was just a personal thing. I guess it’s unique in that regard, but individually the balls aren’t worth that much,” he said of the collection.

“I don’t know everything about every one of these guys, but when we would go on our golf trip, one of my buddies would quiz me – he’d pull up the list and say start naming them off – how many can you name? I don’t have them memorized in order or anything like that, but I know who most of them are. And invariably, if there’s a text group or something comes up and one of these guys is mentioned, I’ll chime in.

“’You know he was the No. 1 draft pick, right?’”