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Kevin Berger

Monday, Dec 1, 2008 12:13 PM UTC

Luxury gifts for the sports lover

Buy a life-size rendering of your favorite athlete or a piece of the classic stadiums of yore.

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Luxury gifts for the sports lover

Kids love big things. And that goes for you kids in your 30s and 40s who haven’t outgrown the thrill of seeing Redskins running back Clinton Portis emblazoned on your bedroom wall. Well, better make that your garage wall: Consider Fathead ($149). What is it? Let’s go to the P.R. copy: “Fathead is a life-size, hi-def, precision-cut wall graphic made of hyper-durable vinyl.” In other words, a really big poster of sports stars. Jeff Gordon, anyone?

The sport of kings is now the sport of mooks like you and me. Yes, we can own a thoroughbred racehorse ($499 down and an average monthly stipend of $29). Karakorum Racing Team offers ownership stakes as small as one-half of a percent in a stable of more than 30 horses in New York and mid-Atlantic tracks. You and your 100-or-so co-owners pay for the hay and the shots and the horseshoes, and when your horse wins, you get to stand in the winner’s circle (in 2008, about 12.4 percent of the time).

Give your nostalgic fan a piece of history by buying a chunk of a dearly departed stadium. How about the general manager’s desk from Shea Stadium ($2,500). Maybe a collage featuring a chunk of Texas Stadium’s end zone ($500). What about a ballpark seat ($2,750) from the long-gone but never-forgotten Ebbets Field. Rumor has it you can buy a urinal from the House That Ruth Built, but you’re on your own tracking down the auction for it. They’re apparently going fast.

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Kevin Berger is the former features editor for Salon. He oversaw the Environment & Science section, including the popular Atoms & Eden series about science and faith. He has written about John Adams, fruit flies and Danica Patrick. His article "The artist as mad scientist" appeared in "The Best of

Technology Writing, 2007."

A longtime Bay Area journalist, Berger spent a decade as a writer and editor for San Francisco magazine, where he wrote about the San Francisco Bay, homelessness, the opera and how "green" locals really are. He has won awards from the City and Regional Magazine Association and Western Magazine Association. He interviewed novelist Richard Powers for the Paris Review.

With his brother Todd, Berger co-authored the book [OU1] "Zen Driving," still selling after 20 years, thanks to the enthusiastic endorsement of drivers ed teachers. He also wrote "Where the Road and the Sky Collide: America Through the Eyes of Its Drivers," exploring our love-hate relationship with cars and car culture.

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