The Hall Ball Project
It started with a beat-up, waterlogged baseball that we fished out of the small creek that runs next to Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, NY and it has evolved into a photography project of epic proportions. For the last four and a half years I have been photographing that baseball with the members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, both living and deceased. Not only have I met over 60 of the members who are alive, but I have traveled all over the country visiting the graves of those who are no longer with us.
Despite the financial possibilities (sports memorabilia is a multi- million dollar industry, after all) it has never been my intention to sell the ball. Instead, upon completion of the project, I plan on donating the ball and all of the photos to the permanent collection at The Baseball Hall of Fame. More important to me than money is a chance to have something I've created laying next to some of the most important artifacts in the history of the game.
As of September 2016 I have visited 287 of baseball's greatest. Now, I'm in the home stretch and I need your help. There are only 25 left, but the ones that remain keep getting further and further away from my Staten Island home. The financial burdens of the Project have become more than I can handle alone.
Baseball fans, this is a once in a lifetime chance to be a part of the Hall of Fame. By contributing to the project, you become an active player in the quest to join all 312 members of the Hall together in a way that has never been done. You'll also help prove the unlimited possibilities of crowd-funding, as there has never been a donation made to the Hall that was done with the support of so many people.
I will be driving tens of thousands of miles and hunting through cemeteries in big cities and tiny towns. I will pay my respects at the final resting places of some of the biggest names in baseball history, along with some of the Hall's more obscure members. With each new addition, the story of the ball grows and you, dear contributor, are helping me write it.
To show my gratitude, I have also come up with a number of different rewards that you can see detailed below. For a donation as low as $5, your name will appear on The Hall Ball's website, thehallball.sportspalooza.com, which features photos, facts about the players, and anecdotes about my travels. A larger donation can get you an even better prize, including photo prints from the project, an autographed picture of a Hall of Famer with the Hall Ball, an autographed copy of the travelogue I'm writing about my adventures or even the opportunity to join me on one of my trips. 