BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. — Donald Miller, 55, still feels like the kid at the ballpark that never grew up. However, Miller stopped playing the children’s game at 11, when he realized, hitting a curveball was a little harder than the Albany-Colonie Yankees made it look.
“When guys were able to start throwing curveballs, I started looking foolish in the batter’s box,” Miller said.
“But that’s why I idolize these guys,” he added.”This is their livelihood, but at the same time, they are playing a game that I love to play and I love to watch.”
Miller’s heart has always been in baseball, with the passion sparked simply through his step-father, Fred Salati. Miller recalls fondly, during the 1985 season, when he used to pedal his 10-speed bicycle from his hometown of Guilderland to the Albany County Nursing Home to meet up with his step-father and head to Heritage Park, for glimpses of the future big-leaguers.
“I’d throw my 10-speed in the back of his van, we’d go over and grab some hotdogs before the game and watch batting practice,” Miller said. “He’d talk about who’s going to make it, who’s not going to make it, why they’re going to make it, why they’re not gonna make it, or just generally what was happening with that game we were seeing. His aficionado and knowledge of baseball was passed to me and then I passed it on to my son.”
Yet like every kid that goes to the ballpark, Miller wanted to bring home a piece of the action. “When you go to a baseball game, what’s the one thing you always hope you get? A foul ball or a home run ball,” Miller said.
For the past 13 years, Miller has been chasing more than foul balls. Rather he’s after jerseys and has amassed roughly 240 of them, per his estimation, game-worn by players and coaches who spent time in the Capital Region. He’s also brought home all the stories that come with them.
“For me, it’s about having a tangible piece but also the fact that I’d like to honor the guy who played here,” said Miller.
Miller, who goes by the nickname ‘The Jersey Guy From Upstate N.Y.,’ didn’t start his collection until 2011, as getting something worn by a member of the A-C Yankees was more difficult in their days of existence.
“Even in the ’70s when I grew up, you couldn’t get a jersey for a player because they were only issued two home and two road jerseys and when they wore one, the other one was in the washing machine getting ready for the next day,” Miller said with a laugh.
Instead, Miller’s collection began with a Tri-City ValleyCats jersey from the club’s 2010 Jackie Robinson Day game, purchased for $110 at a charity auction.
“They actually brought (Robinson’s) plaque down from the Hall of Fame (in Cooperstown) and it was at Joe Bruno Stadium. All the players dressed in specialty jerseys, similar to the Brooklyn Dodgers. They had ‘ValleyCats’ in script, the same script as the Brooklyn Dodgers, and they all wore the number 42,” Miller recalled.
The jersey was worn in-game by ValleyCats’ pitcher Andrew Robinson, and years later, Miller interviewed Robinson for an article he was working on as a contributing writer to the team’s gameday program.
“We did the interview over social media. We did it through Instagram and he answered my question and he was fascinated to know I actually had a jersey for him,” Miller said. “That’s the common denominator. When I reach out to a player and say, ‘Hey, I got your jersey,’ their first reaction is, ‘YOU have my jersey?’”
Andrew Robinson isn’t among the 114 ValleyCats to make it to the big leagues, but he is to thank for pushing Miller to own 83 players’ jerseys, not counting coaches. That collection remains ever-growing, with the most recent addition being a game-worn jersey from New York Mets’ relief pitcher Adrian Houser (TCVC ‘13), from when he threw three innings of relief versus the Yankees in the Subway series, this past week.
Miller remembered that stat line, as he has with the rest of his jersey collection. He catalogs the performance, with, if possible, a signed baseball card for the players in one of the many binders on bookshelves of his ‘man cave.’ In the case of starting pitcher Nick Tropeano (TCVC ‘11), the jersey and the baseball card happened to line up.
“That jersey is right there in that baseball card,” Miller said, referencing Tropeano’s page of one of his many binders used to organize and sort the collection. “You can see Citi Field in the background, here, when he was pitching. The authentication puts it back to that game. So, to actually have a jersey worn by the player in the game that you actually have a photograph of, or the baseball card of…to have that and the provenance is something amazing.”
“When I wear that jersey, I can say, ‘Yeah it was worn in the game against the Mets on this date.’”
Not every one of Miller’s jerseys is identical to the one worn in its corresponding baseball card. However, there are other verifications if the jersey was game-worn or team-issued. After a decade-plus of collecting, Miller knows exactly what to look for.
“I don’t like the replica because the replica is that exactly: it’s a replica. For instance, did you know that the New York Yankees’ home jerseys, if you buy a replica, it’s a straight pinstripe,” Miller explained, “but if you buy an authentic, game-used or team-issued jersey, the pinstripe is a zig-zag.”
“Ideally you want to have the MLB authentication, hologram, sticker and if you don’t have that, when Majestic had the contract to make baseball jerseys, their jerseys were coded on the laundry tag. So, if the laundry tag began with two ‘zeros,’ or a ‘zero,’ that meant it was given to the team. If it started out with a six or a seven, it was a retail jersey,” Miller noted.
“With the Nike (jerseys) it’s a little bit harder. The MLB authentication is the only way you’re to know: team-issued or game-used. That’s the one factor that really drives the price for jerseys,” Miller added.
As Miller, whose day job is at NYSARC Trust Services, has learned from his decade-plus of collecting, an authenticated, game-worn, or team-issued jersey can cost a pretty penny. He sets his maximum price point at $200, to avoid having to “dip into his 401k,” or “eating bologna sandwiches for a year.” Yet in some instances, the collector community will work together, helping one another to secure their high-prized memorabilia, when they realize the sentiment, outweighs the monetary value.
“A lot of times, people will come down in price when they realize it’s going into a collection, and that you’re not flipping it,” Miller said. “I had that happen with an Ian Anderson jersey from the Rome Braves. When I talked to the guy about the jersey, he said, ‘Well, what are you gonna do with the jersey?’ I said, ‘Well, I have a collection of jerseys for Capital Region players, and I’m not going to get rid of it. I’m keeping it for a personal collection.’ All of a sudden he’s like, ‘Okay, I’ll sell it to you for $150,’ and he was asking originally for $400 Yeah. Because he realized I’m not trying to make a profit.”
Some jerseys, due to their price, Miller has conceded he might never be able to bring into his collection.
“I know I’m never going to own a jersey for Jose Altuve, Jeremy Pena, and I might as well throw Ronel Blanco’s name out there because Jose Altuve is probably pre-Hall of Fame now, Jeremy Pena is the MVP of a World Series. I’m probably not gonna be able to get his jersey unless he changes teams and then the jersey prices drop,” Miller explained.
“And no Ronel Blanco because he threw a no-hitter this year,” Miller added.
That doesn’t mean Miller will ever grow tired of the chase for new jerseys, learning that sometimes, he’ll never know what he might find. Like a J.D. Martinez (TCVC ‘09) jersey from his first Spring Training with the Houston Astros, in 2010, where he wore No. 94, that Miller purchased on eBay, for a mere $39.
“Now that guy is commanding what money?” Miller remarked humorously.
That’s not Miller’s only jersey for one of the most decorated former ValleyCats in the franchise’s history, as he believed the collection couldn’t have been complete without a piece from the old New York-Penn League All-Star Games.
Martinez’s first All-Star game jersey, worn in the 2009 NYPL contest in which he homered as a member of the National League team, resides in the Miller household, signed by the former Tri-City slugger.
“On eBay right now, someone is selling his ‘Sally’ jersey, from the South Atlantic League, from the time when he was playing for Lexington (2010) and he made the All-Star game,” Miller said. “That collector, or seller, wants to sell it for $3,500. So, it makes me wonder – ‘how much is (mine) worth?’”
Yet if Martinez ever wanted either jersey back, to restore his collection of memorabilia from along his career, he’d have no problem getting it returned from Miller. The same goes for any of the previous wearers and owners of the jerseys collected, as Miller understands that to them, it will always mean more.
In the case of Casper Wells, a Schenectady native who played for the Detroit Tigers, Seattle Mariners, Philadelphia Phillies, Oakland Athletics, and Chicago White Sox during his 10-year career, Miller abandoned the chase altogether but not without learning the jersey’s true worth in the eyes of the local.
“One night I was up on bid for one of his Phillies’ jerseys that was game-worn and then all of a sudden the guy who was selling the jersey reached out to me in a message and said, ‘Do you want to retract your bids?’ I’m like, ‘Why do I want to retract my bids?’ He replies, ‘Because you’re bidding against the player who owned the jersey and who wore it,’” Miller recalled.
“I said, ‘Alright, tell Casper I’ll retract my bids.’ Not five minutes later, on my Twitter feed, is Casper Wells saying, ‘Thanks for pulling back your bids. It really means a lot.’ I learned that he lost all of his baseball memorabilia to a house fire, from when his parents’ house got struck by lightning and all of his belongings were burned up in the attic,” Miller continued. “He had nothing left from his career and he’s been trying to rebuild it.
“These jerseys mean more to the players than to a collector. To a collector, it’s a collection. To a player, it’s their life,” Miller noted.
The stories and interactions might be what Miller chases above all the physical memorabilia, with that collection seeming far more extensive. But to get there, it starts with the jersey, no matter how he finds it.
“Talking to Jason Castro, from the (TCVC) 2008 team, I learned from him that he wears No. 15 not because of Thurman Munson (Miller’s favorite player). He wears 15 because it was his dad’s softball number and he was the bat boy growing up for his dad’s softball team,” Miller said. “He collects a jersey for every year he was in the majors.
“That’s the fun part about the chase,” he added, “is that you get to learn about these players through collecting the jersey.”
Miller has formed relationships with some former players before bringing the jersey into his collection as he did with Watervliet native Chris Salamida (TCVC ‘06). Salamida and Miller started as coworkers, at the old Pro Image Sports memorabilia store in Corssgates Mall, before eventually, Salamida offered to teach Miller’s six-year-old son, Jacob, some pitching tips, from his time in the pros.
“I told him, ‘I would love to get one of your jerseys,’ but he said, ‘I’m gonna tell you right now…it’s gonna be hard to get one of my jerseys.’ He talked about his jersey at Corpus Christi (Astros AA) and that they auctioned them off after the last game for charity, he talked about his New York-Penn League All-Star jersey that he gave to his dad.”
“Years later, I’m at the Recovery Room, in Troy, and up in the rafters, there’s Chris Salamida’s jersey. It got me thinking and I called over the waitress and I said, ‘Is the manager around here?’ I talked to him about, ‘How can I get that jersey?” Miller said.
“I went home, got a jersey, and came back to the restaurant the next day and he pulled down Chris’ jersey. Now I have Chris’ jersey in my collection.”
Miller doesn’t get to interact with every player he’s collected a jersey for, like Huner Pence who he said he’s been ‘hounding,’ for years, but to no avail. He still takes the time to learn the players’ backstory and the importance of the number they wear.
“I just recently learned by following Hunter Pence (on social media), why he wears No. 8,” Miller said. “When he was growing up, his brother was No. 7. Hunter was the older brother, so Hunter decided to wear eight because he wanted to be one better. And who made the pros? Hunter, and he always wore eight when he could.
“He even incorporated the No. 8 into his autographs when he was here with the ValleyCats,” Miller added.
Picking a favorite jersey from the collection, Miller likened it to, ‘a parent trying to pick their favorite kid.’ But as for his assortment of ValleyCat jerseys, from which the passion was born, there is one that holds a special place in his heart above the rest and not because of who wore it.
“My favorite (ValleyCats) jersey is the ‘Tri-City SmellyCats,’ from back in 2017, for ‘The Game about Friends,’” Miller said, referencing the popular ’90s sit-com. “That TV show speaks to my generation. That’s my TV show, of my generation and to have that in (collection), is beyond some of the other heirlooms.”
As the ValleyCats approach their fourth of July weekend festivities at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium, it’s unclear whether Miller will be in attendance, as nowadays he said he makes it to one or two games per season. At every game, Miller still takes a picture of his son enjoying a ballpark hot dog, no matter how old he gets.
Collecting is something that has transcended generations in Miller’s family, starting with his step-father keeping every program and ticket stub from days at Heritage Park, or Hawkins Stadium, and now with his son garnering a small assortment of baseball cards.
Everyone craves a piece of the game, it’s a matter of how far they will chase it.
“I go after the whole thing,” Miller said. “You don’t want just a piece, grab the whole jersey and I think that’s where I’ve elevated the collection.”
