I’ve known Peter Capolino — the man who transformed Mitchell & Ness from a conventional sporting goods operation into a retro jersey-merchandising powerhouse — for many years, and I’ve interviewed him several times. But no interview I’ve done with him — or that anyone else has done with him, as far as I’m aware — is as good as the one recently done by a podcaster named Dan Wallach.
Wallach’s podcast is called My Baseball History. It’s apparently been around for a few years, but I wasn’t aware of it until a few people pointed me toward the latest episode, which is an absolutely stellar interview with Capolino. It touches on Mitchell & Ness’s origins, Capolino’s early days with the company (which at that time was run by his father), the ins and outs of his licensing deals with MLB, and more — a lot more. Wallach, a baseball hsitorian who formerly served as executive director of the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum in Greenville, S.C., really covered a lot of ground with this one, and it’s well worth the full listen. Uni Watch’s highest recommendation! You can check it out here:
There’s a lot of supporting info here, and and you can see the full My Baseball History website here.
Interestingly, there are two Dan Wallachs who host sports podcasts, of special importance to me since I lived down the hall from him in my freshman year. But my Dan’s podcast is called “Conduct Detrimental”. Small world!
Thanks for posting this! I’ve added the episode to my queue.
I still have my childhood Boomer Esiason jersey, which was huge on me as a kid. As an adult, however, it is just a tad too small, so I would absolutely buy a Mitchell & Ness Boomer jersey, but their version is wrong. The number is nothing like the 2 different number fonts he actually wore when with the team. With so many photo, available, how do you mess that up?
First time I saw that cover image, I thought the elephants on the jacket were weird, creepy hands. Aside from that, great interview!
Had exactly the same notion!
Manos The Hands Of Fate!
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Fantastic history lesson. Glad to have hats and jerseys made by them before they were sold, though.
Thanks for sharing about the podcast, Paul. That was a fun listen.