Saturday, September 26, 2015

The Return of the Millennium Beanie Baby



I'm going to interrupt Millennium a little bit today for the sake of an anniversary.

On September 26th, 1999, the Pittsburgh Pirates sailed in to Wrigley Field, where they challenged the Chicago Cubs in the last scheduled game of the century. Much to the surprise of no-one, the Cubs lost (Pirates 8; Cubs 4).

Yarrrrrrrr, matey.

1999 was also the year in which Ty, Inc.'s Beanie Babies toys were at their all-time high. Someone out there had the bright idea of commemorating the last game of the century with a special edition of the "Millennium Beanie Baby," which I reported on quite a while ago.

There's nothing new to report on, except for the collector's card it came with:


I bought this for $2.00 at Evergreen Park High School's "flea-market day" sometime in March or April. It was one of about three things I got there, and I can't remember off the top of my head what the other two were.

It's frustrating that neither Ty nor the Chicago Cubs thought to modify the bear itself. Merely issuing it with a nice collector's card (read: a piece of laminated cardboard) cheapens the "commemorative collectible" aspect. One of Ty's competitors, Salvino's Arena Bammers, kept this in mind when they issued a bear to commemorate the Chicago Blackhawks' last game of the century. This bear was incredibly well-made, with embroidery on the feet and back, and even a hockey-puck nose!

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