Holy smokes! Woman’s 1871 baseball cards and letter erroneously valued at $1 million

A woman from New England brought her collection of 1871 Boston Red Stockings baseball cards and a players’ letter written to her great-great-grandmother on Antiques Roadshow to be appraised. When Leila Dunbar suggested that the owner have her family treasure insured for $1 million it elicited a couple of breathless, “Holy smokes!”

The collection set a record on the PBS series for sports memorabilia valuation, but leave it to Keith Olbemann to set the record straight. It turns out the cards aren’t as rare as they were made out to be — they were clipped from 1871 Mort Rogers scorecards and dozens of others are known to exist.

Olbermann also takes on the mantle of history scold in the video. He points out that Albert Spalding did not pioneer the use of the fielding glove, nor use it as the primary product for which to build his sporting goods empire.