Pewter shows off a few pieces from his Ortiz collection

To step into Jon Pewter’s home in Topeka, Kansas is to gain an understanding of the far-reaching pull of Red Sox nation.

Like many heartlanders, Pewter discovered the Nation during Boston’s World Series run in the fall of 2004 and immediately became enamored with the team’s two biggest stars – sluggers Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz.

To commemorate his newfound fandom, Pewter began turning his basement into a Sox shrine, amassing a collection of Ortiz/Ramirez memorabilia that would make Ben Affleck drool.

There’s the eight autographed bats (six Ramirez and two Ortiz). And the twenty-eight autographed baseballs (an even fourteen-fourteen split between Ramirez and Ortiz). And the six framed autographed jerseys (one home, road, and alternative jersey for both Ramirez and Ortiz, Pewter explains). And the Ramirez autographed batting gloves. And the Ortiz autographed spikes. And the dozens of gem mint, professionally graded Ortiz and Ramirez rookie baseball cards. And the list goes on.

All of this, collected by a man who lives nearly 1,500 miles away from Boston, and has never seen Ortiz or Ramirez play in person.

“It all started with this ‘Papi’ (David Ortiz) jersey,” Pewter said with a chuckle, “I got it for $799.99 from mlb.com right after the Sox won the series in 04’.”

Overall, Pewter estimates he has invested nearly $18,000 in Ramirez and Ortiz memorabilia. It’s value today?

“Take off a few of those zeros, and you’d be in the ballpark,” Pewter said, this time without the chuckle. The value of Pewter’s memorabilia collection is yet another casualty of baseball’s steroid era, which recently expanded to include both Ramirez and Ortiz.

“After I heard about their involvement, I went through the same emotions that every fan has: denial, anger, betrayal,” Pewter said, “but at the end of the day I just felt like I should do something to send a message on behalf of fans everywhere.”

Pewter’s message is coming – in the form of litigation. With the help of attorney Robert Holder, Pewter is organizing a class action lawsuit against Ortiz, Ramirez, and other major leaguers implicated in the steroid scandal.

“Many of the pieces I have, I bought as investments,” Pewter explained, “and I bought them based on the performance of the athletes. Those performances turned out to be artificial.”

As part of the lawsuit, Pewter is hoping he and other fans will receive compensation for the loss of value in their memorabilia collections.

Holder believes that the lawsuit has potential. “Our stance is that these athletes are no different than the CEO who inflates his company’s earnings to make its stock price go up. By using performance enhancing drugs, these ballplayers were able to generate inflated statistics that encouraged fans to buy their memorabilia. The athletes profited. The teams profited. The fans were left holding the bag. We’re going to try to rectify that.”

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