While out of the office for a couple of days, I ran across this bit of news circulating around the offices:

The increasing number of collectible products that incorporate game-used dirt from major league parks is the subject of a piece in the current issue of Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal.

Brandon Steiner, CEO of Steiner Sports, is quoted as saying items featuring game-used dirt account for more than 25 percent of his company’s business since the closing of Yankee Stadium (Steiner offers items with dirt from Yankee Stadium and a handful of other MLB parks).

Benny Greenberg, director of sales and marketing for Highland Mint, said that game-used dirt is “an inexpensive way to deliver game-used memorabilia, and that is what’s been driving the market for at least a decade.”

Colin Hagen, VP of hard goods for MLB Properties, said the league has been authenticating dirt from all of its parks for about five years.

Steiner is also quoted in the story as saying the company will soon offer portions of turf from the old Yankee Stadium.
I don't get this and never will (and this coming from a guy with a brick from the old County Stadium). Dirt, really? the Packers offered turn and dirt from Lambeau Field when it was renovated and people bought it like it was the latest gadget needed to turn on the TV.

Having a pile of dirt in a vile or in a framed display just seems silly. Where is the nostalgia in that. If you were to dump it in the driveway, you wouldn't be able to differentiate it from anything else. That's collectible? Can you grow your own stadium from it? Does it regenerate to produce the gleaming field you see on television? Nope.

In the end, it's dirt, brought in from somewhere else - sometimes out of state. Oh and it gets replaced, too, so it isn't the same stuff athletes ran over and dove into 50 years ago.

But hey, people are making money off of it, helping the hobby - right?