Cortland man creates museum about Scrappers
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NILES -- As a boy, Brian Orfin of Cortland collected baseball and other sports cards. Getting a player's autograph was huge.
On the Lakeview High School baseball team in the early 1990s, Orfin said he may not have been the best at batting, but his glove was strong in the outfield.
"I played baseball all through high school. The coaches and other players used to say that when the balls went to left field they were doomed because I would always catch them," Orfin said.
Today, Orfin, 46, is fielding local history. His trading card hobby and love of baseball has grown into a collection of many sports cards and memorabilia, with a special interest in the Mahoning Valley Scrappers. The Scrappers, an affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, began playing ball at then-Cafaro Field in Niles in 1999.
Orfin has created a museum for the team inside his Niles store, Nowhere Toys.
"I have always enjoyed history and learning of famous people and events, but history of sports has always been an interest," he said.
Orfin grew up in Warren, but he moved to Cortland in 1998 and had located his business in Warren off Summit Street before moving to Robbins Avenue in Niles. When he was in school, history was his favorite subject. While education was his major in college, he minored in history.
Orfin said when he worked as a Head Start teacher, he talked to his students ages 3 to 5 about sports and his days playing high school baseball.
"Because they were so young, they would always be interested in what I had to say but would only ask me easy questions about why I played baseball and why I liked sports and collecting items," Orfin said.
Twelve years ago, Orfin and his son, Andy, now 15, began collecting Scrappers memorabilia.
"We have had season tickets to the Scrappers for over 10 years, and we always try to get a game-used cracked bat and we never could. All of a sudden at the end of one game, one of the players gave my son one and gave me one also. We got two cracked bats in one day.
"It is a dream to own one and to be able to get two in one day. We are now up to about 400 bats," Orfin said.
The cracked bats are collector's items as they can't be used in a game again.
"To some people, they do not mean anything, but to us they are something we can showcase in the museum," he said.
Several of the bats are autographed by that season's players.
"We have gotten to know many of the players and at the end of the season. They will give us their cleats, jerseys, batting gloves … I am collecting these items to help preserve local history," Orfin said.
He said his two favorite collected items are Francisco Lindor's used Scrappers jersey and C.C. Sabathia's first warmup jersey. Another favorite is a sign of Scrappy, the Scrappers mascot, that had hung on the original scoreboard, he said.
"I have every bobblehead they have made for a Scrappers player," he said. "Once when the team was celebrating in the locker room when they won the championship in 2004, they gave me the empty wine bottle (on) which they wrote down the stats of the day and had the entire team sign the bottle."
Orfin said he and his son never miss a Scrappers game. They're among the first to arrive and the last to leave. He and Andy had attended games since 1999, but one incident changed things. They were at the game when a foul ball streaked into the stands and hit 5-year-old Luke Holko in the head. Months of surgery and recovery for a cracked skull and brain injury followed for the North Bloomfield boy.
"He (Andy) was the same age as Luke, and I got scared and did not take him to games for about a year," Orfin said. "Then we realized how much we enjoy attending the games."
Since then, safety nets have been added to sections of the stands.
The Scrappers museum at his store includes cards, jerseys, hats, bobbleheads and posters.
Orfin said keeping the items is important to his goal of preserving the legacy of the Scrappers.
"I want to preserve this because I know people have items in their closets. Some stuff gets thrown away, and I wanted to get stuff people may not want. I made sure the big Scrappy head on the scoreboard did not get thrown away."
He said he compares his collecting to those who collect Idora Park items and now display them. He himself also collects Legos and autographs of famous people who are not all connected to sports.
He said he has contacted former Scrappers employees to see if they have anything.
"I do not care about the monetary value. I will take donations and will also pay for items," Orfin said. "This takes up a lot of my time, and knocking on doors to see if people saved anything. I never would have imagined I'd have almost every jersey."
He said he will not sell any of the 1,000-piece collection, which includes home plate and bases from the different years and jerseys from every year since 1999 but one.
"I tell people if they know a player who played for the Scrappers, I have their autograph," Orfin said.
Orfin said if it was not for his interest in collecting baseball cards and trying to get Hall of Famers' autographs as a boy, the museum may never have happened.
Because of the coronavirus, Orfin said he is waiting to see if the Scrappers will play this year.