Naper Wow Pow: Take home sports history from Dean’s Dugout
By Daina Saleh For The Sun January 3, 2013 3:46PM
A Miguel Cabrera autographed baseball is only one of many sports memorabilia Dean's Dugout offers. Come in for all your sports collectibles and accessories and walk out feeling like you've just stepped out of a time capsule. Daina Saleh - For Sun-Times Media
Updated: February 7, 2013 6:18AM
Even if you are not a collector, a signed Miguel Cabrera baseball, the Triple Crown winner of the Detroit Tigers, is a must have for any serious baseball collector.
Dean’s Dugout, a sports collectors shop at 2035 S. Washington St., offers two of these encased collector’s items at $165 each.
Cabrera is the first in 45 years to claim the coveted Triple Crown by boasting the best annual batting average, the highest number of home runs and the best RBI (runs batted in).
For the more nostalgic collector, Dean’s Dugout offers the signed 1950 Yankees baseball featuring signatures of Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra, for $400.
Or just bring your kids to dig out a grab bag and thumb through 8-by-10s autographed by sports celebrities visiting Dean’s Dugout. Do the names Joakim Noah, Tim Jennings or Daniel Carcillo, to name just a few, ring a bell?
This no-pretense shop has been around since 1991 and is a dream come true for sports collectors, but also for serious board gamers and collectors of nonsport trading cards.
Owners Dean and Marilyn Bapes have both been serious collectors since they were young.
“We didn’t have ESPN back then. Trading, that’s how we learned,” says Dean Bapes, who also teaches history, philosophy and music at College of DuPage and Moraine Valley College.
Dean’s Dugout also hosts themed birthday parties and events for sports clubs and the Boy Scouts. Visit www.deansdugoutonline.com or call 630-527-8888 to learn more, including a special signing event Jan. 28.
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