Geddy Lee Auctions ‘Part’ Of His Baseball Memorabilia

9 min read

There are baseball collectors and then there is Geddy Lee.  He was the singer and bass player for the Canadian band, Rush. Back in December of 2023, he pulled together about 300 items from his baseball memorabilia collection to set up for auction. His collection is very large. Some of the items are worth well more than $100,000 dollars! Why would he do this?

Welcome to That's Life, I Swear.  This podcast is about life's happenings in this world that conjure up such words as intriguing, frightening, life-changing, inspiring, and more. I'm Rick Barron your host. 

That said, here's the rest of this story 
 
After more than 40 years of building his massive collection, Lee put up some 300 items up for sale in a live auction. The auction, titled "Selections from the Geddy Lee Collection and Important Baseball Memorabilia,” was presented by Christie’s which took place on Dec. 6,2023.

Geddy Lee taking time to reflect. Courtesy of: CTV News

In an extraordinary narrative, the story unfolds as Geddy Lee, the Canadian rock sensation from Rush, assumed an unexpected role as an archivist of America's cherished pastime. Engaging in a phone conversation from his secluded home office, Geddy Lee requests a moment to retrieve a specific baseball, a seemingly unremarkable item with a story etched in his memory. Among the hundreds in his possession, this ball holds minimal monetary value, overshadowed by others worth well over $100,000 – adorned with signatures of U.S. presidents and baseball Hall of Famers. Some of these baseballs had been thrown in no-hitters and hit for milestone home runs.

However, Lee reaches for a ball signed by Bert Shepard, a left-handed pitcher who pitched only one game in the major leagues before fading into obscurity. When Shepard signed the ball, would you believe he found room between the seams to write his life’s story.

Bert wrote: “I lost my right leg being shot down over Germany in World War II. I got a new leg and pitched for the Washington Senators on August 14, 1945,” Lee continues, “I gave up one run and three hits in five and one-third innings.”

At this, Lee starts laughing, but it’s an emotional laugh, as if the smile is helping him choke back something more. 

Needless to say, that when Geddy gathered articles to be put up for sale, Bert Shepard’s baseball wasn’t in the pile. How could anyone put a price on something like that?

In the realm of pure, guilt-free enjoyment, this embodies it. At 70, Lee, the esteemed bassist and vocalist of the Canadian rock sensation Rush, stands proudly within the hallowed halls of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, his distinctive signature etched into its very walls. He epitomizes the essence of a true rock star in every conceivable way.

But Lee is also a meticulous curator of the American pastime. Over the years, Lee’s office became a treasure drove of baseball memorabilia. He has a 1917 Chicago White Sox ball signed by Shoeless Joe Jackson, a 1942 Negro Leagues ball signed by Josh Gibson, and a Mickey Mantle bat that’s been traced back to the 1960 World Series. It is a collection of Rock and Roll excess, but also of passion and stewardship.

The great Shoeless Joe Jackson. Courtesy of: Forgottonia

Over 300 items from Lee’s collection were auctioned by Christie’s on December 6. It was billed as “Selections from The Collection of Geddy Lee,” and the auction house estimated The Beatles ball alone would be worth upwards of $300,000. Same for the Mickey Mantle bat and a ball signed by Rube Waddell. One of the Kennedy autograph baseballs was said it could fetch $100,000. It’s a lot of money.

Other items that went under the auctioneer’s hammer were:

• Baseballs signed by various U.S. Presidents
• Artifacts that belonged to Shoeless Joe Jackson, such as trophies and old photos
• The final-out balls from both of Johnny Vander Meer’s back-to-back no-hitters
• A ball singed by all four Beatles -- estimated at $300,000 dollars
• A Lou Gehrig bat -- $400- to $600,000 dollars to start!
• Jerseys worn by Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron one-million dollars and up

"When viewed abstractly, it boils down to greed," asserted Lee. "The desire to possess the game, to own a fragment of each exceptional player, to cradle in your hand a ball autographed by Lou Gehrig. It evolved into a compelling obsession for me."

What’s telling, though, are the pieces Lee had decided to keep, and the unmistakable care with which he accumulated so many artifacts in the first place.

“Baseballs, nobody owns them,” Lee said. “They’re like houses. You take care of them for a while, and then they move on to the next person, the next custodian.”

Baseball held a special place in Lee's heart, despite his path not leading him to the major leagues. During his childhood in Toronto, he attempted to join a local team but didn't secure a spot. Listening to American League broadcasts from Buffalo, he became enamored with legends like Norm Cash and Al Kaline, as well as the formidable Tigers teams of the 1960s. In those days, Toronto boasted a Triple A team, as the Blue Jays wouldn't make their debut for over a decade. Lee, fueled by his passion, would hop on a streetcar to witness the pros in action. The image of the wooden bleachers remains vivid in his memory.
 
Entering the 1970s, Lee had transitioned into the realm of music. The thrill of playing the game was substituted with the exhilaration of performing on stage. Touring across the U.S. and Canada, he embraced a musician's lifestyle — sleeping in hotel rooms well past noon, indulging in breakfast at 1 p.m., and scanning television channels for daytime entertainment. It was during this quest that he stumbled upon Cubs games on WGN and later Braves games on TBS. This discovery reignited his fervor, and Lee found himself captivated and driven by a newfound obsession.

When the broadcasts mentioned players from bygone eras, Lee thumbed through The Baseball Encyclopedia that he owned to research them. He was thrilled at the colorful nicknames of the past. He read Hoopla by Harry Stein and The Southpaw by Mark Harris. He discovered the writings of Roger Angell and Roger Kahn. In 1979, he returned home from tour and contacted the Blue Jays — in their third year of existence and on their way to a third-straight 100-loss season — and purchased season tickets, which he shared with his brother.

Geddy and his brother would ride their bikes down to the vintage Exhibition Stadium, in Toronto, to catch as many Blue Jay games as possible. He would try to attend as many games when he wasn't on the road.

Geddy through the first pitch at a major league game. Courtesy of: CBC

Rush already had three albums certified gold. In a little more than a year, the band would begin recording its iconic, five-times-platinum Moving Pictures. During that summer, Lee remembers even as a 25-year-old kid riding his bike, along with his brother, to baseball games. The game of baseball was in Geddy’s blood.

There's a hint of mystery as Lee suggests he "acquired" baseballs signed with the autographs of every member of the 3,000-hit club. Initially graced with over 20 signatures, including luminaries like Ty Cobb, Eddie Collins, Tris Speaker, and Stan Musial, it has evolved over time. Through a web of connections within the game, Lee has skillfully maintained its relevance, adding modern legends such as Ichiro Suzuki, Miguel Cabrera, and Albert Pujols. 

“It’s a big job to keep adding to it,” Lee said. “And I’m running out of space, too!”

Lee was hesitant at first to ask for autographs. His bandmate Neil Peart was notoriously leery of the celebrity spotlight, and Lee didn’t like the idea of hassling ballplayers on the field or in the clubhouse. He came into autograph collecting by chance. 

His blossoming obsession led to a Blue Jays front-office connection who gifted Lee and his brother a set of baseballs signed by various American League players. With those tucked away at home, Lee was on tour in Kansas City when he stumbled upon a memorabilia shop and purchased a signed photo of Satchel Paige and another of Bobby Thomson’s “shot heard round the world.”

Soon after, he called that Kansas City shop looking for advice on obtaining a specific item.

“I got in my head — and I think this is how every collector starts — wouldn’t it be cool to have a baseball signed by Babe Ruth?” Lee said.

The shop owner became a dear friend and mentor who eventually got him a Ruth ball. When Lee acquired the 3,000-hit ball, it was the shop owner who encouraged him to keep adding signatures; to not just admire a piece of history but to maintain it and enhance it.

Immersed in the world of virtual sports, Lee found solace in the intricacies of rotisserie baseball, a game of strategic planning and calculated risk. Another way to see this is what we call Fantasy Baseball. His league, renowned for its complexity and competitiveness, demanded a deep understanding of player statistics and an unwavering commitment to the virtual field. Lee, despite his undeniable skill, had not emerged victorious since 2019, a fact he acknowledged with a hint of sheepishness.

Lee embarked on a journey of redemption; his spirit undeterred by an initial slump that threatened to derail his aspirations. With astute trades and shrewd acquisitions, he secured the services of Pablo López, Kodai Senga, and Elly De La Cruz, while also benefiting from the resurgence of Triston Casas in the second half of the season. His efforts culminated in a respectable fourth-place finish, a testament to his resilience and strategic brilliance.

As the season drew to a close, Lee found himself yearning for the daily dose of box scores that had become an integral part of his routine. The absence of these tallies left a void in his life, a reminder of the thrill and camaraderie that rotisserie baseball had provided.

Truth is, Lee has his own place in baseball history. It’s a footnote in the grand scheme of things, but it exists. Rush songs have been used as walk-up music, and former Padres play-by-play man Matt Vasgersian once called a home run by singing the chorus to Fly By Night on the air. Lee threw the ceremonial first pitch for the Blue Jays’ home opener in 2013, and he sang the Canadian national anthem for the All-Star Game in 1993. With no pitch pipe and no accompaniment, Lee walked up the microphone and sang a cappella — but not before someone from the TV network told him he would be “happy to know” 80 million people were watching from home, which did little to calm his nerves.

“The whole thing wound up being a very marvelous experience for me and very memorable,” Lee said. “But it’s one of those things: Once you do it, why would you do it again?”

Lee’s brother-in-law took a picture of him from the stands, and 30 years later, that picture is still framed in Lee’s office. He also added to his baseball collection that day, though he didn’t mean to. Marlins closer Bryan Harvey, whom Lee didn’t know, gave him a baseball before the first pitch.

“And he just said, ‘This is for your son,’” Lee said. “I mean, how sweet is that?”

Lee possesses an innate appetite for collecting and has willingly immersed himself in the study of history. His collections span art, wine, and even an entire book dedicated to his assortment of bass guitars. Recently, he has ventured into the realm of watch collecting. 

Surprisingly, his baseball collection serves as a unique lens through which he gains a profound insight into American history. Notably, he treasures a 1946 Montreal Royals baseball, graced with the signature of the iconic Jackie Robinson on the sweet spot. For Lee, a Canadian, this particular piece holds a distinct and marvelous significance.

As a collector, though, Lee has come to believe that “collections need to be tended, and they need to be fed.” And in recent years, Lee realized he’d stopped feeding his baseball collection. In 2008, he purchased more than 200 baseballs signed by Negro League players and immediately donated the entire set to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. He’s made enough connections that people in the game still gift him artifacts, but he won’t sell any of the gifts. They’re priceless in their own way.

“I kept a lot of personal things, and a lot of things that I felt my grandson perhaps would be interested to take over eventually in time,” Lee said.

Lee will sell the many baseballs in his collection that are signed by U.S. Presidents (an obsession back when he was still aggressively adding). He has Kennedy, Harry Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson, and some of the signatures are on actual ceremonial first-pitch baseballs. He will also sell the final-out balls from both of Johnny Vander Meer’s back-to-back no-hitters, themselves historical artifacts from a different angle.

Geddy Lee sitting in his room of baseball memorabilia. Courtesy of: New York Times

Packing his office for the sale that happened in December of 2023, Lee said, was an emotional experience. Each item had a history and a story, and some of them Lee had acquired in especially memorable ways. They meant something beyond their hefty price tags. But when Lee was finished packing, he dug into his archive to better display the items he was not ready or willing to let go.

“Within three days, my wife came into the office and said, ‘I thought you were going to sell your baseballs!’” Lee said. “I said, ‘Well, yeah, some!’”

Some stories, and some baseballs, just aren’t for sale.

“Those are symbolic of the life of a person, to me,” Lee said. “I sit in the stands as a fan, and I marvel about the beauty of the sport and the grace with which it’s played. In almost every game something happens that you’ve never seen before. I mean, that’s baseball to me.

“The items I collected over these years, I collected with passion, I collected with love, and I just have too much! It’s time to share with the world again. And that’s fine.”

What can we learn from this story? What's the takeaway?

Over 40 years, Geddy built a massive collection of baseball memorabilia. He collected with passion, he collected with love, but it soon came to a point he realized he had way too much. 

Geddy felt it was an education and privilege to have had the opportunity to gather such a collection of baseball history.

What was he to do? The answer was simple. Lee said. “It’s time to share with the world again, and give other collectors an opportunity to enjoy the fun I had all these years.” 

Well, there you go, my friends; that's life, I swear

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