About three decades ago, Robbie Silverman was shopping at Owings Mills Mall, planning to buy a gift for a friend. He wound up acquiring a lifelong obsession you could call the gift that keeps on giving.
While strolling through the mall, Silverman noticed sports memorabilia vendors setting up. “I saw all of these sports figurines and was intrigued because they were so realistic,” he recalls. “I made a few purchases right there. Then, I grabbed a copy of Tuff Stuff [a sports memorabilia publication] and saw what [the figurines] were appraising for. I was hooked.”
Today, Silverman, 63, estimates he has a collection of more than 400 sports memorabilia items in his Mount Washington basement. Most of them — figurines, cloth pennants, bobbleheads, stadium giveaways, buttons, sports-themed Coca Cola bottles, autographed balls — are in their original packaging or in protective gear “unblemished and unboxed,” he says.
“They’re authenticated, with seals on back,” Silverman says. “When people come over and see it all, their jaws drop. It’s so much, a lot of diamonds in the rough.”
But now, Silverman is ready to part with these gems to benefit others.
Silverman — who closed his family’s West Baltimore retail business Jerry’s Bargains in 2021 after a 57-year run –- recently donated six cartons of his sports memorabilia collection to Chai Lifeline’s Mid-Atlantic regional office in Baltimore.
Chai Lifeline is a nonprofit that provides critical comprehensive support to Jewish families with children facing life-threatening or lifelong illnesses. “We are grateful to Robbie for integrating his love of sports and compassion for children with this donation to Chai Lifeline Mid-Atlantic,” says Racheli Daniel, the local office’s director.
Silverman –- who estimates his entire collection is worth somewhere “in the thousands” –- plans to donate more memorabilia to Chai Lifeline in the near future. The donations are in memory of his late father Gerald M. Silverman, his grandmother Katie Schwartzman, and his pets Sylvester and Tweety. (In the recent past, he has also donated pieces of the collection to the Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital.)
“I saw an article about Chai Lifeline and what they do. I’d never heard of them before, so I did my research,” he says. “I sent an email asking if they would take my donation, and they got back to me very quickly.
“My mantra is, I live to give,” Silverman says. “That’s why I wanted to do this.”
Although he has enjoyed accumulating and showcasing his collection over the years, Silverman, who now works at a local restaurant, says he decided the time was right to part with the memorabilia.
“I don’t need the money, and I want to honor my loved ones This is really their gift, for the people living to enjoy,” he says. “If I can make one person smile, it’s worth it. I don’t want Chanukah to come just once a year. Like everything else in life, things come and go. I’ve enjoyed them long enough. I want the younger set to enjoy them.”
Whether it’s Chai Lifeline or another organization, Silverman says it is up to the beneficiaries to decide what to do with his memorabilia.
“I believe that they distribute them to the children, but it’s fine if they want to sell them,” he says. “It’s up to them to decide what to do with them. When they’re out of my hands, that’s it. The ball’s in their court.”
A Baltimore native, Silverman says he was interested in collecting sports-themed items even as a youngster. “I used to go to Miller’s Delicatessen in Pikesville and buy the packs of baseball cards with bubble gum in them,” he says. “But it wasn’t until my mid-30s that I really got into sports memorabilia, especially sports figurines.”
There are still a few items Silverman says he won’t part with –- some Johnny Unitas mementoes and Colts paraphernalia, an autographed Ray Lewis rookie photo, a few Jonathan Ogden figurines.
But most of the collection he wants to give away for others to enjoy. “Giving makes me happy, much more than receiving,” Silverman says. “Like I said, I live to give. Maybe they’ll put that on my tombstone.”
A former resident of Baltimore and central Florida, Ritt was active in the Soviet Jewry movement of the 1970s and 1980s.
The Orioles' weak defense plays a major role in the nightly carnage, writes Michael Olesker.
For more than four decades, Goldman played a vital role in the supervision of elections in the city.
The 16-year-old sophomore succumbed to injuries sustained in a car crash last week in Cockeysville.