Many people are buried with sports memorabilia.
Fishing rods. Golf clubs. Shotguns.
Even duck decoys.
Being buried inside sports memorabilia is another story.
But now it's possible.
A Phillies funeral casket - the first on view in the region, the distributor says - sits in a showroom at Kingston & Kemp Funeral Home, just outside Trenton.
The exterior is a lustrous white with wood-veneer inlays, and the handles are in Phillies red, sporting red tassels at each end. Logos are strategically placed above the handles, on a fabric liner, and at the casket's ends.
Funeral director Kevin Dalton props open the half-lid, revealing a large Phillies logo on the inside, above where a loved one's chest would be.
"It's exceptional. The paintwork is beautiful. The embroidery is perfect," he says.
Suggested retail price: $4,499.But there are limits.
It gives luxury box new meaning.
Clearly, it's for "the die-hard fan," manager Shawn Kingston quips.
The Phillies, of course, might have more of them than ever, as they begin spring training this weekend, hoping to repeat as World Series champs.
The caskets are created by Eternal Image, a Michigan-based company devoted to everlasting branding - its niche in the $15 billion annual death services industry.
The company negotiates licensing deals, works up designs for urns and caskets, and farms out the manufacturing, said chief executive Clint Mytych. Among the available brands are the Vatican Library, the American Kennel Club, and eight universities. Star Trek and American Cat Fanciers Association items should be out by summer.
Proposals from licensers for the Three Stooges and Marvel Comics were recently rejected, Mytych, 27, said.
Although baseball-team caskets were just introduced in mid-December, major-league urns have been out since 2007, with more than a thousand sold nationwide, Mytych said.
Sam Steckline of Red Lion, Pa., purchased a Phillies urn for himself and two weeks ago had it autographed by Charlie Manuel at a sports show in York.
The Phils skipper signed the red-and-white canister. A spot at the top for a baseball will hold one signed by Steve Carlton in 1979.
At an autograph show, the Hall of Fame hurler also inked the urn itself, inscribing it with "To 100 years more before death" and "No. 32."
Upon learning what the object was, Carlton asked if Steckline was kidding.
"I said, 'I'm dead serious - no pun intended.' "
