Putting a price on family memories
| Saturday, Jul 11 2009 10:46 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Jul 11 2009 10:46 PM
Family is obviously important to Debbie Knickrehm, who moved to Bakersfield with her husband and four children three years ago.
So much so, that she is willing to part with a variety of family heirlooms, originally given to her father by her extended family, the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.
The gifts, which include World Series rings, trophies and signed championship bats, are being auctioned off by Hunt Auctions Inc. with a live auction Tuesday in St. Louis. The items, nearly 800 from a variety of sources, can be viewed and bid for through today at huntauctions.com.
"The things that meant the most to me, bats given to my father, memorabilia that he really treasured are with me," Knickrehm said. "He loved his rings, and it was difficult to part with these, but the things that mean the most to me I still have and I wouldn't part with them."
The hope is that the money raised by the auction will help pay for college for Knickrehm's son, Robert, while at the same time sharing a piece of baseball immortality with fans throughout the world.
"Part of it is we are paying for my son's school with what we get, but it is almost like we lived this wonderful life and we wanted people to be able to share in the Dodger history," Knickrehm said.
Knickrehm's father, Bob Schenz, was in the right place at the right time when nearly 40 years ago he met Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley. Schenz worked for United Airlines at the time and O'Malley took a liking to Schenz, Knickrehm said. So when the team decided to move to Los Angeles, O'Malley offered Schenz a position as Transportation Director and was later put in charge of the Stadium Club.
As an executive from 1961-1988 for one of the more successful sports franchises, Schenz and family had a rare opportunity to build relationships with some of baseball's true legends. At the same time, Knickrehm inherited a vast collection of Dodgers memorabilia which is only exceeded by her lifetime of memories.
There's the countless number of games, where Dodger Stadium became almost a second home. Then there's the trips with the team each year to Cincinnati, with a pit stop to visit relatives. Another trip featured a stop to see the eighth wonder of the world, the Houston Astrodome. There were also unique opportunities to see another side of Hall-of-Famers Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, and sitting shoulder to shoulder with Dodger greats Wes Parker, Bobby Valentine, Steve Garvey and Ron Cey, managers Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda and the O'Malley family, who sold interest in the team in 1998.
"It was just part of growing up," Knickrehm said. "I guess I didn't really think it was abnormal until I took a trip to Dodger Stadium with a leadership group while in high school."
Despite the death of her father, who lost his eight-year battle with lung cancer (he didn't smoke) in 2006, and the sale of the team, Knickrehm's love for the Dodgers hasn't faded.
"I can't say enough for the Dodger organization and the goodness they brought to our family," Knickrehm said. "They were so good to their employees. They had such good employees; just loyal and honest and hard working people. It's just a wonderful organization
I guess that's just the way it is with family.
