BaseBall Cache

His love of baseball is evident, his enthusiasm for baseball history is infectious and   his personal collection of autographed baseballs   is   nothing less than extraordinary. Dennis Schrader's signed baseball collection, housed in the spare bedroom of his Odessa, FL home, is now internationally recognized. Schrader's collection may not include the infamous Boston Red Sox's Bill Buckner booted ball during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series now for sale on eBay for a cool $1 million, but it does comprise the most comprehensive and coveted collection of autographed baseballs on the planet. Schrader a  semi  retired home executive  has accumulated a fortune worth millions of dollars with his passion. He is now the proud owner of 4,020 baseballs all signed by major league baseball  players . The collector’s "Little Cooperstown" success has been decades-long in the making. 

Schrader got hooked to   collecting signed baseballs when he was 9 and New York Yankee star Mickey Mantle signed one for him at spring training. Though Schrader traces his obsession to the first ball signed by Mantle, alas, that one is not part of his record-
setting collection. Like a lot of kids in the 1950s who didn't realize how valuable autographs would become, he went out and played baseball with it. Schrader’s passion for the sport and preoccupation with baseball memorabilia, especially the autographed kind, quickly tuned into a lifelong obsession and one that other lovers of baseball can now enjoy. 

He gives a bold proclamation that   he does not have any big players autograph missing on his huge ball   collection. However he seems very justified to have made such a   outrageous remark as he has   corroborated over 3000 certificates   of authencity, testimonial letters and scores of photographs and videos. Despite generational differences, one name in Schrader’s collection emerges as baseball fans’ undisputed favorite. According to this collector, kids, fathers and granddads alike are wowed by the nine baseballs signed by legendary Babe Ruth. This micro-collection is housed with his other 4,000+ autographed balls in a 150 square-foot bedroom, wisely protected with a fortress-type door and security system. Schrader's boundless collection of baseball keepsakes may be amazing, but his personal story is equally compelling. The 65-year-old cancer survivor’s "Little Cooperstown" is a culmination of a 55-year commitment to collecting that has proven far more cumbersome and arduous than originally envisioned. Schrader has spent years scouring the internet, phoning prospective sellers, attending countless sports memorabilia shows and forking over a personal fortune for, at times, someone's barely legible John Hancock on an old piece of raw hide. Yet is seems all these personal adventures, travels and events have only stoked the embers of Schrader's personal passion for baseball.  And with even non baseball celebrities autographs including Barack   Obama   finding a place in his famed room his total could notch up to 4,600.

The Largest  collection of autographed baseballs counted to 4,020 and was set by Dennis Schrader at Odessa, Florida, United States of America on October 19,2011.