Memorabilia

No respect for Marlins rookie Florida's Chris Coghlan got to the majors less than three years after being drafted out of college, got off to a rough start, then found his stride as a leadoff hitter. Now, with a .306 batting average and a .382 on-base percentage, he is a candidate to be named the NL rookie of the year. But there still are bumps along an otherwise seamless road. About two months into his major-league tenure, Coghlan got his first set of personalized bats from Louisville Slugger.

These days, it's best known as the setting of the quirky TV sitcom The Office, or as Electric City, because it operated the first electric trolley system. But it was daredevil Harry Houdini who lured me here - and he's been dead for 83 years. Now, that's a magic trick. It started as a day trip for my husband, Frank, and myself to explore the Houdini Museum - touted as the only building in the world devoted to the famous escapologist - with our grandson, Christopher, 12. And it expanded to a Weekend Journey a few weeks later, to tour this city of more than 70,000 that's enjoying a cultural renaissance, with historic sites that celebrate the industrial past; glorious, restored buildings; and a vibrant ethnic diversity.

The April auction schedule opens this weekend with two suburban sales offering unusual and perhaps unique items, and continues with the promise of major activity midmonth - notably the sale by Freeman's of a major private collection of pewter. The first of this weekend's sales takes place tonight at Briggs Auction in Garnet Valley, which, as part of its regular Friday night event, will be offering a single-owner collection of more than 2,000 books related to railroads, as well as railroad memorabilia.

The Phans parted with their phunds big time yesterday in a cap/T-shirt/sweatshirt-buying frenzy that looked as if it might set its own record. "It is clearly the single biggest event in the history of our company, which is pretty amazing," said Mitchell Modell, chief executive officer of Modell's, a sporting-goods chain that is 119 years old. Stores opened before daybreak yesterday to lines of championship-starved Phillies faithful eager for...

Like a lot of children in the '60s, Mark Suplee was glued to the TV set and Batman. He and his buddies loved anything to do with the Caped Crusader. In his Somerton neighborhood, the boys played with black-and-blue action figures. They raced toy Batmobiles. They washed their hair with shampoo that came in plastic bottles shaped like the Dynamic Duo. Suplee's friends outgrew the fascination with all things Batman. "I didn't," said the 45-year-old Dresher father of two and sales manager for a payroll company.

To some, Joseph Murphy's Haddonfield workplace may look more like a political campaign headquarters than a law office. Walls, shelves, and display cases are crammed with presidential-election memorabilia dating back to Andrew Jackson's first race in 1824. They range from treasures such as an 1860 daguerreotype pin of Abraham Lincoln and a Teddy Roosevelt campaign poster to lighthearted items: Ronald and Nancy Reagan slippers, a singing Hillary Clinton doll, and Richard Nixon bubble-gum cigars.

As Flyers fans have been flocking to games of the Eastern Conference finals and, perhaps, the Stanley Cup playoffs, so do wannabe entrepreneurs selling counterfeit sports memorabilia. It's a huge business. The National Hockey League puts the price tag for unsanctioned knockoff products at "tens of thousands" a year. Sales are in the millions for all pro sports leagues. That's money the NHL, which licenses authentic goods that bear trademarked logos of its teams, does not get. And maverick hucksters do, selling their version of goods for less money on nearby street corners and at subway stops.

Everything's for sale Brian McNamee is selling 50 to 60 pieces of signed Roger Clemens memorabilia and plans to donate the profits to his juvenile diabetes charity. Remarkably, Clemens was able to write his signature on needles and syringes. Zing! McNamee, the former personal trainer for a number of major-league players, is facing a defamation lawsuit by Clemens after he testified that he injected the six-time Cy Young Award winner with steroids and human growth hormone. The story, first reported by the Boston Herald, gets juicier (pardon the pun)

Who owns the black bag that Dr. Nick used to treat Elvis? Or the bottles of prescription pills dated the day before Presley died? Or the glass nasal douche used to irrigate the King's nostrils before he took the stage? Tomorrow, a Wilmington judge will begin hearing a dispute over a multimillion-dollar collection of Elvis memorabilia once owned by one of rock-and-roll's most infamous physicians, George C. Nichopoulos. "It's a big, damned mess, man, just the craziest thing you've ever seen," says Bobby Freeman, a lounge-singer/music historian and a defendant in the case.

Travel along Cherry Lane in Wynnewood and you'll see a property whose entrance appears to be a railroad crossing with warning lights, even though no tracks are anywhere to be seen. The scene reflects the enormous collection of railroad memorabilia assembled over several decades by the estate's owner, Richard Reuss. About 300 lots from that collection will be offered to the public today by Wiederseim Associates Inc. at the first session of its two-day midwinter auction, beginning at 5 p.m. at Griffith Hall, Ludwigs Corner firehouse, in Glenmoore.