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Holiday Shopping; Deadly Ambush in Iraq

Aired November 26, 2004 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to the CNN center in Atlanta. This is LIVE FROM. I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all new this half hour. Handle with care. You are looking at a piece of sports history that could be worth more than $1 million.
Magic Johnson made sports history when he announced he had the virus that causes AIDS. Ahead he reveals to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the most difficult part of sharing his condition.

A tiny Harlem apartment turns into something special every Sunday afternoon. We'll take you to a jazzy jam session that attracts fans from around the world.

First, here's what's happening now in the news.

Call it the call of the wild. Crowds whipped up in a shopping frenzy continues to happen in malls and stores across the U.S. This is considered the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season. It looks like retailers are ringing up plenty of sales.

A deadly ambush in Iraq. The military says insurgents attacked U.S. forces going house to house in Falluja yesterday. Two U.S. Marines were killed. Three were wounded. The marines are still hunting down pockets of resistance left over the offensive from earlier this month.

And in the political crisis in Ukraine. Right now a meeting is under way between the two presidential rivals, the current president and representatives from Europe. The Kremlin-backed candidate was deemed the winner, but the opposition says the vote was rigged. Today President Bush warned the world is watching the stalemate very carefully.

Mahmoud Abbas gets a boost after popular Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti says he won't challenge Abbas for the Palestinian Authority presidency in January. That decision came after the ruling Fatah Party set internal elections for August, apparently to appease younger members who complained that they are being shut out.

Going shopping? Well, you probably won't find a parking place anywhere close to the store. Most lots are packed now. And hey have been since early this morning when the rush began for the perfect gift or the best buy. Some stores couldn't keep flat screen TVs or computers even on the shelves. For bargain hunters the day after Thanksgiving is usually one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Retailers call it Black Friday and they can only hope the stores will stay full until Christmas so they can post a profit. Today, anyway, shoppers seem to be packing a bit more confidence in the economy, along with their credit cards and gift ideas. Allan Chernoff with CNN Financial News has been monitoring the madness at Macy's in New York. Allan?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. As you can see from the crowds behind me, shopping in New York City is often a contact sport. Well those people hoping to avoid too much contact started lining up at 5:00 a.m. outside of Macy's. The doors opened at 6:00. Hundreds of people rushed in hoping to grab some kind of bargain. There were some bargains to be had. Men's dress shirts, 65 percent off. Microwave ovens at $50. And also for $50, some down jackets. But would you believe at that hour in the morning there were some people who said they were here merely to window shop?

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There will be no shopping today. I'm just looking.

CHERNOFF: At 6:00 in the morning?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I'm on my way to work.

CHERNOFF: Very efficient.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it's part of the job.

CHERNOFF: Does your employer know that coming to Macy's to shop is part of the job?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, partly.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

CHERNOFF: One woman said she was going to head straight from here at 6:00 over to Lord & Taylor a few blocks away and get there by 7:00 and get uptown to Saks Fifth Avenue by 8:00 a.m. People are pretty serious about shopping over here. And some people, when they see what they want, they grab it.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHERNOFF: It's now 6:30 in the morning. I see you've already got two shopping bags here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do. I bought five Grovers.

CHERNOFF: Five Grovers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. Yes.

CHERNOFF: Five kids?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, grandkids.

CHERNOFF: Grandkids? That couldn't be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's true.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

CHERNOFF: Well, Grover is pretty popular here at Macy's. Also handbags are hot items. Tivo, Apple's iPod, of course, and for the first time ever, Kyra, shoppers say that gift cards are likely to be their number one purchase during the holiday season.

PHILLIPS: That's a little cheaper. We're asking the question, I'm sorry, what's a Grover?

CHERNOFF: Grover, of course, is the character from "Sesame Street."

PHILLIPS: Oh, Grover.

CHERNOFF: Also known on Sesame as Super Grover. He's all dressed up here at Macy's.

PHILLIPS: Very good. Okay. I'm glad he's coming back, he's making a comeback. Thank you so much, Allan Chernoff.

CHERNOFF: Oh, big time.

PHILLIPS: All right. That's good news.

Well, other news around the world. More than 37 million adults are living with HIV. Nearly half of them are women. In the CNN special, "Are You Positive," our Dr. Sanjay Gupta cuts through the stereotypes to reveal the many faces of AIDS. He talks to a number of AIDS activists, including basketball great Magic Johnson who has been living with HIV for more than a decade now.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What was -- I mean, besides the obvious, I guess, when you tell your wife you have a potent potentially very problematic virus, what was it that scared you so much or frustrated you so much about having to tell her?

MAGIC JOHNSON, FORMER BASKETBALL PLAYER: I think scaring me so much was the fact that I didn't know what she was going to do because you have to remember, Cookie not only a great wife, but also my best friend. So you could possibly lose both in a matter of minutes. So not knowing whether she was going to stay or not. Because I told her, I would understand if she wanted to leave. So I think that was the toughest moment.

And then when she told me that we're going to beat this together, I just -- you know, like -- because you don't imagine driving for 30 minutes and trying to rehearse what you are going to say, how you're going to say it and then you open the door and there she is and none of that -- that just goes all out the door because here's a person that you love, that you care about. And, you know, and she's pregnant. All that in one. So it was a tough moment, tough time.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PHILLIPS: You can see the entire special, "Are You Positive" this Sunday night at 10:00 Eastern and there will be a special encore presentation for World AIDS Day this Wednesday at 3:00 and 11:00 Eastern time.

Still ahead on LIVE FROM, finding joy through jazz.

MARJORIE ELIOT, JAZZ MUSICIAN (video clip): Something joyous has been threaded through some very sad stories.

PHILLIPS: She turned to music to mourn the loss of her son and turned her living room into a cabaret.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: If you can hold out on your holiday shopping, there's a special sale coming up on December 2nd. That's when Sotheby's will auction hundreds of some of the most prized pieces of baseball memorabilia. The home run in this collection, the Bambino's bat. The Louisville Slugger Babe Ruth used to hit his first home run at Yankee Stadium back in 1923. But be prepared to bring some big bucks for that one. Joining me to talk about it is Sotheby's Senior Vice President, Lee Dunbar.

LEE DUNBAR, SOTHEBY'S: Hey. Great to see you.

PHILLIPS: Great to see you. Do you actually have the bat with you? Is that it?

DUNBAR: I don't. It's estimated at $1 million, it's sitting right in our exhibition, which you can go to if you come up to New York. It's on exhibition now through December 1st.

PHILLIPS: Now we're looking at a picture of it. Now, describe the bat. What does it look like? How is the condition? What's inscribed on it?

DUNBAR: It's a wonderful piece of ash. It's H&B. It's 45 ounces. It's 35 inches long. And it's inscribed, if you can see it close up, it says "To the home run king of Los Angeles," signed Babe Ruth May 7th, 1923. But this is the bat that Babe Ruth used to hit the very first home run ever at Yankee Stadium on grand opening day on 1923.

PHILLIPS: Wow. That's the real deal. It has no stuffing inside that one.

DUNBAR: No cork whatsoever.

PHILLIPS: There you go. It's corkless. What do you think that will bring in?

DUNBAR: Well, we really don't know. As I said, our estimate is $1 million and up. And it would just really depend. We have got fans, we have got institutions. But we're guessing it's going to be a home run.

PHILLIPS: No pun intended. Tell me about this Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig signed photograph you have autographed.

DUNBAR: Well, if you can't get a hold of the bat, you have this photograph taken in 1927 at a Notre Dame game. You can see the Babe and Lou Gehrig sitting on the bench and it's signed by them. Notice at the top, the inscription that it reads. It's signed by Knute Rockne. And its Knute Rockne's handwriting itself, of course, the gridiron great at notre dame who died tragically in 1931. So they were his guests for the day.

PHILLIPS: That's a neat photograph. What about the Babe Ruth signed baseball?

DUNBAR: Babe Ruth signed baseball, probably the most popular autograph in baseball history is the Bambino. He brought in the signing age in the 1920s when he came to New York. And look at this -- it looks like he just signed it yesterday, even though it was well over 50 years ago.

PHILLIPS: Is that the original Spaulding wrapper?

DUNBAR: It is, underneath it. That's the box. Probably one of the reasons why it was protected all these years.

PHILLIPS: Wow, that's incredible. What could that bring in?

DUNBAR: Well, the estimate on this is $55,000 to $65,000. And again, you just don't know what can happen with emotion and passion.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Talk about a passion. My brother was an avid baseball card collector. I don't know. I don't see kids doing that so much anymore. You have a set of the old Topps cards?

DUNBAR: Well, surprising, that industry is still huge. But if you go back to the fifties, Topps came up with their first set in 1951. This is the very second set they did and the first color one in 1952. We have all 407 cards, all ranked PSA 8 on a scale in condition of 1 to 10. This is the most sought after. This is Mickey Mantle's what they consider to be his rookie card by Topps.

PHILLIPS: Oh my gosh. What else is in the collection?

DUNBAR: In the collection itself, the Topps cards?

PHILLIPS: Yeah.

DUNBAR: We have Mickey, we have Willie Mays right here, also considered his rookie card and we have Jackie Robinson and a person you may never have heard of, but also a very important card. This is Andy Pafko. He was the number one card in the series, which is the one that always got the gum on it, so really hard to find in great condition. PHILLIPS: Is the gum still in there?

DUNBAR: I think it's been chewed.

PHILLIPS: OK. I should have figured that. All right. Let's talk about two other things I know you brought with you. Pee Wee Reese's -- he actually signed a cap, is that right, that he wore?

DUNBAR: That's right. We have items from Pee Wee Reese's estate. He passed away in 1999. He had a glorious 18-year career with the Brooklyn and LA Dodgers. This is his cap from 1955, the only year that the Brooklyn Dodgers ever won the world championship and they did it in the first of six tries while he was playing, over the Yankees. And you flip it over and Pee Wee Reese signed right here, number 1, which was his uniform number in 1955.

PHILLIPS: Wow, that's pretty cool. All right. Now, his relationship with Jackie Robinson, you have something of the two of them. And as you show us that, tell us about their relationship, their friendship.

DUNBAR: Sure. Well, Pee Wee Reese was from the south. And Jackie Robinson broke the color line in major league baseball in 1957 -- 1947, excuse me. And at one time he was even slated to take Pee Wee Reese's position. And Pee Wee made it much easier for Jackie to join the big leagues because he was suffering from a lot of discrimination, a lot of taunting. This photo was taken in 1947 after Jackie Robinson suffered a particularly tough tirade in Cincinnati. Pee Wee Reese ran over from his shortstop position over to Jackie Robinson at third base and put his arm around him, which was a big deal back in 1947, a very important statement being made by Pee Wee Reese, accepting him on his team. This was shot afterwards in the locker room and this was Pee Wee Reese's most important photograph. It hung in his den in Louisville right up until the time he passed away.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Not only a great photograph, but represents such a great statement. Lee Dunbar, cool stuff. Director of collectibles, also vice president at Sotheby's. Now I know you are a big sports fan. When you see stuff like this, are you just dying to make a bid? Do you want to hang on to something?

DUNBAR: I have to say I often tell people I have one of the greatest jobs to be a part of this sale, which takes place December 2nd and public exhibition for the next six days. I'm in heaven.

PHILLIPS: I can just imagine. Lee Dunbar, thank you so much. Neat stuff.

DUNBAR: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, an old favorite returns to Neverland and an auction is giving Beatles fans something to strum about. Our Sibila Vargas joins me with entertainment headlines. What's the deal?

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra, it's been awhile since Cathy Rigby played Peter Pan on Broadway. But after a long hiatus, the cheerful one is making a comeback.

(MUSIC)

VARGAS: She's flying. The former Olympian is expected to cap off a high-flying tour of a musical with a limited Broadway engagement between Thanksgiving 2005 and January 2006. Mary Martin and Sandy Duncan have both played Peter Pan in the Broadway musical, but the tiny and acrobatic Rigby was most identified with the role. Rigby says this will be her last time in the green tights.

Well from Cathy Rigby to Eleanor Rigby, any Beatles fan would love to get their hands on some of the band's memorabilia. Well, now you can. A Beatles guitar is just one of the items being auctioned off at Christie's. And who could forget the veil worn by Madonna in her "Like a Virgin" video. That's expected to fetch as much as $2500. Also up for grabs is a book report by pop princess Britney Spears and a hand written letter from the late Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love.

PHILLIPS: What about that guitar? How much is it going for?

VARGAS: Oh, you want to know. If you want the Beatles guitar, you might have to dig deep into your pockets, Kyra. It's estimated to sell for about $500,000.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's cheaper than the Babe Ruth baseball, though. Or the Babe Ruth bat. That's right.

VARGAS: Let me ask you a question. What do "Baywatch," "The Anna Nicole Show" and "Jerry Springer" have in common?

PHILLIPS: A lot of cheese.

VARGAS: Give up? That's right.

They've all been voted the worst U.S. TV imports by our friends from across the Pond. According to a British poll of about 20 British TV buyers, the sun-bleached saga of California lifeguards, "Baywatch," ranked number one. The "Anna Nicole Show" came in second followed by "Wild Palms" and "Manimal." Others on the list were the "Jerry Springer Show" and "Extreme Makeover. And Kyra, what is "Manimal"? "Wild Palms"? I don't remember that show?

PHILLIPS: Oh boy. I don't remember "Baywatch" very much, or Anna Nicole. Some things you like not to know about. Sibila, thanks so much.

VARGAS: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: Still ahead LIVE FROM, harmony and healing. After a tragedy struck, she opened her heart and home. Now this woman's living room is one of the hottest tickets in tow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Jazz can be described as music of the soul. But for one New York City woman, it comes straight from the heart. Through it she's found a unique way to express her grief and honor the memory of her late son. CNN's Jason Carroll with more.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stand outside this building in Harlem on any given Sunday and listen. You might hear the faint echoes of jazz. It's not the spirits of Duke Ellington or Count Basie, both lived here back in the day. It's the spirit of Marjorie Eliot in apartment 3F at 555 Edgecombe Avenue that's making it all possible.

MARJORIE ELIOT, JAZZ MUSICIAN: It's a kind of communion of spirits. You know, from all kinds of places.

CARROLL: Every Sunday for the past 10 years, Marjorie has hosted jazz concerts right in her living room free of charge in honor of her son Philip who died a little more than 10 years ago.

ELIOT: He passed on a Sunday, and I really used to go crazy on Sundays. I say that something joyous has been threaded through a very sad story.

CARROLL: Marjorie, a former actress and musician herself, never had a problem finding other musicians. But in the beginning, it was hard finding an audience.

ELIOT: I used to beg people to come out of the laundry room. Please come upstairs. You don't have to get dressed up. Silly.

CARROLL: Now thanks to word of mouth, they come from all over the world to sit in her living room, hallway, wherever.

ELIOT: They get a chance to hear people unplugged, and they are right on top of them. They can experience them, they can talk to them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very cool. You could tell something is going to happen here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a nice experience to go back and tell people in North Carolina what I went and did.

ELIOT: But it doesn't surprise me. It's thrilling because they really embrace the notion of what I do. They just come with an outpouring of love and generosity and honesty.

CARROLL: Keep on jamming Marjorie. The living room is larger than you could possibly imagine.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PHILLIPS: Are you planning to do some holiday shopping from the comfort of your own home this year? Well, you're not the only one. Jennifer Westhoven joins us now from New York with the lowdown on holiday shopping. I want to know all the good deals, Jen.

JENNIFER WESTHOVEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I've got to tell you, Kyra, this is great if you are a deal hunter. Let me get to that in a minute. So you hear about this Internet shopping and it's logical. You might think, hey, that's got to be bad for those traditional stores. But maybe not so bad because one of the things that's happening is, according to research group Gardener, about two out of five people are actually just using the Internet to research their purchases. They are actually going in and buying them in person.

But now you get to this comparison shopping, which is something really good. You can use site like Froogle out there, you can compare all kinds of prices out there and then you go to the right place the first time when you go in person instead of going to five and six. By the way, some research firms say online sales could be 20 percent higher this year than last year. Some of the estimates out there, a little bit more modest, though. Here's something your boss will hate to hear. Most people do their online shopping during work hours. That's according to one market firm. And it says that Monday is the busiest shopping day and the busiest time is, oh, right around lunchtime. Noon to 3:00 p.m. But we know that never happens here at CNN.

PHILLIPS: Of course not. We never go online while we're working. As I'm over here cht cht cht cht cht cht cht.

WESTHOVEN: Is that what you were doing?

PHILLIPS: Of course not. I was listening to you. All right. What about the markets?

WESTHOVEN: Actually, really quiet today on Wall Street, but they did make it fun. Today the lightest trading day of the year. That actually happens a lot on this day. Just 501 million shares changed hands. Take a look at the number moves here. Real small. The Dow not up even two points and the NASDAQ was down, but just fractionally. Actually why at the New York Stock Exchange, they bring in all the kids today. That's the latest from New York. Kyra back to you in Atlanta.

PHILLIPS: All right, Jen, I lied. You know I'm always online, but I'm doing research.

WESTHOVEN: You were on e-Harmony.

PHILLIPS: Oh, yeah. Just don't tell my husband, all right? Thanks Jen. All right. We'll see you later.

Well, that's all for this hour of LIVE FROM. Coming up, much more serious story. We're going to head back to Iraq where more bodies have been found in Mosul. What's the cause of all the carnage? Well, a report from Baghdad straight ahead.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired November 26, 2004 - 14:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to the CNN center in Atlanta. This is LIVE FROM. I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all new this half hour. Handle with care. You are looking at a piece of sports history that could be worth more than $1 million.
Magic Johnson made sports history when he announced he had the virus that causes AIDS. Ahead he reveals to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the most difficult part of sharing his condition.

A tiny Harlem apartment turns into something special every Sunday afternoon. We'll take you to a jazzy jam session that attracts fans from around the world.

First, here's what's happening now in the news.

Call it the call of the wild. Crowds whipped up in a shopping frenzy continues to happen in malls and stores across the U.S. This is considered the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season. It looks like retailers are ringing up plenty of sales.

A deadly ambush in Iraq. The military says insurgents attacked U.S. forces going house to house in Falluja yesterday. Two U.S. Marines were killed. Three were wounded. The marines are still hunting down pockets of resistance left over the offensive from earlier this month.

And in the political crisis in Ukraine. Right now a meeting is under way between the two presidential rivals, the current president and representatives from Europe. The Kremlin-backed candidate was deemed the winner, but the opposition says the vote was rigged. Today President Bush warned the world is watching the stalemate very carefully.

Mahmoud Abbas gets a boost after popular Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti says he won't challenge Abbas for the Palestinian Authority presidency in January. That decision came after the ruling Fatah Party set internal elections for August, apparently to appease younger members who complained that they are being shut out.

Going shopping? Well, you probably won't find a parking place anywhere close to the store. Most lots are packed now. And hey have been since early this morning when the rush began for the perfect gift or the best buy. Some stores couldn't keep flat screen TVs or computers even on the shelves. For bargain hunters the day after Thanksgiving is usually one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Retailers call it Black Friday and they can only hope the stores will stay full until Christmas so they can post a profit. Today, anyway, shoppers seem to be packing a bit more confidence in the economy, along with their credit cards and gift ideas. Allan Chernoff with CNN Financial News has been monitoring the madness at Macy's in New York. Allan?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. As you can see from the crowds behind me, shopping in New York City is often a contact sport. Well those people hoping to avoid too much contact started lining up at 5:00 a.m. outside of Macy's. The doors opened at 6:00. Hundreds of people rushed in hoping to grab some kind of bargain. There were some bargains to be had. Men's dress shirts, 65 percent off. Microwave ovens at $50. And also for $50, some down jackets. But would you believe at that hour in the morning there were some people who said they were here merely to window shop?

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There will be no shopping today. I'm just looking.

CHERNOFF: At 6:00 in the morning?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I'm on my way to work.

CHERNOFF: Very efficient.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it's part of the job.

CHERNOFF: Does your employer know that coming to Macy's to shop is part of the job?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, partly.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

CHERNOFF: One woman said she was going to head straight from here at 6:00 over to Lord & Taylor a few blocks away and get there by 7:00 and get uptown to Saks Fifth Avenue by 8:00 a.m. People are pretty serious about shopping over here. And some people, when they see what they want, they grab it.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHERNOFF: It's now 6:30 in the morning. I see you've already got two shopping bags here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do. I bought five Grovers.

CHERNOFF: Five Grovers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. Yes.

CHERNOFF: Five kids?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, grandkids.

CHERNOFF: Grandkids? That couldn't be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's true.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

CHERNOFF: Well, Grover is pretty popular here at Macy's. Also handbags are hot items. Tivo, Apple's iPod, of course, and for the first time ever, Kyra, shoppers say that gift cards are likely to be their number one purchase during the holiday season.

PHILLIPS: That's a little cheaper. We're asking the question, I'm sorry, what's a Grover?

CHERNOFF: Grover, of course, is the character from "Sesame Street."

PHILLIPS: Oh, Grover.

CHERNOFF: Also known on Sesame as Super Grover. He's all dressed up here at Macy's.

PHILLIPS: Very good. Okay. I'm glad he's coming back, he's making a comeback. Thank you so much, Allan Chernoff.

CHERNOFF: Oh, big time.

PHILLIPS: All right. That's good news.

Well, other news around the world. More than 37 million adults are living with HIV. Nearly half of them are women. In the CNN special, "Are You Positive," our Dr. Sanjay Gupta cuts through the stereotypes to reveal the many faces of AIDS. He talks to a number of AIDS activists, including basketball great Magic Johnson who has been living with HIV for more than a decade now.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What was -- I mean, besides the obvious, I guess, when you tell your wife you have a potent potentially very problematic virus, what was it that scared you so much or frustrated you so much about having to tell her?

MAGIC JOHNSON, FORMER BASKETBALL PLAYER: I think scaring me so much was the fact that I didn't know what she was going to do because you have to remember, Cookie not only a great wife, but also my best friend. So you could possibly lose both in a matter of minutes. So not knowing whether she was going to stay or not. Because I told her, I would understand if she wanted to leave. So I think that was the toughest moment.

And then when she told me that we're going to beat this together, I just -- you know, like -- because you don't imagine driving for 30 minutes and trying to rehearse what you are going to say, how you're going to say it and then you open the door and there she is and none of that -- that just goes all out the door because here's a person that you love, that you care about. And, you know, and she's pregnant. All that in one. So it was a tough moment, tough time.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PHILLIPS: You can see the entire special, "Are You Positive" this Sunday night at 10:00 Eastern and there will be a special encore presentation for World AIDS Day this Wednesday at 3:00 and 11:00 Eastern time.

Still ahead on LIVE FROM, finding joy through jazz.

MARJORIE ELIOT, JAZZ MUSICIAN (video clip): Something joyous has been threaded through some very sad stories.

PHILLIPS: She turned to music to mourn the loss of her son and turned her living room into a cabaret.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: If you can hold out on your holiday shopping, there's a special sale coming up on December 2nd. That's when Sotheby's will auction hundreds of some of the most prized pieces of baseball memorabilia. The home run in this collection, the Bambino's bat. The Louisville Slugger Babe Ruth used to hit his first home run at Yankee Stadium back in 1923. But be prepared to bring some big bucks for that one. Joining me to talk about it is Sotheby's Senior Vice President, Lee Dunbar.

LEE DUNBAR, SOTHEBY'S: Hey. Great to see you.

PHILLIPS: Great to see you. Do you actually have the bat with you? Is that it?

DUNBAR: I don't. It's estimated at $1 million, it's sitting right in our exhibition, which you can go to if you come up to New York. It's on exhibition now through December 1st.

PHILLIPS: Now we're looking at a picture of it. Now, describe the bat. What does it look like? How is the condition? What's inscribed on it?

DUNBAR: It's a wonderful piece of ash. It's H&B. It's 45 ounces. It's 35 inches long. And it's inscribed, if you can see it close up, it says "To the home run king of Los Angeles," signed Babe Ruth May 7th, 1923. But this is the bat that Babe Ruth used to hit the very first home run ever at Yankee Stadium on grand opening day on 1923.

PHILLIPS: Wow. That's the real deal. It has no stuffing inside that one.

DUNBAR: No cork whatsoever.

PHILLIPS: There you go. It's corkless. What do you think that will bring in?

DUNBAR: Well, we really don't know. As I said, our estimate is $1 million and up. And it would just really depend. We have got fans, we have got institutions. But we're guessing it's going to be a home run.

PHILLIPS: No pun intended. Tell me about this Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig signed photograph you have autographed.

DUNBAR: Well, if you can't get a hold of the bat, you have this photograph taken in 1927 at a Notre Dame game. You can see the Babe and Lou Gehrig sitting on the bench and it's signed by them. Notice at the top, the inscription that it reads. It's signed by Knute Rockne. And its Knute Rockne's handwriting itself, of course, the gridiron great at notre dame who died tragically in 1931. So they were his guests for the day.

PHILLIPS: That's a neat photograph. What about the Babe Ruth signed baseball?

DUNBAR: Babe Ruth signed baseball, probably the most popular autograph in baseball history is the Bambino. He brought in the signing age in the 1920s when he came to New York. And look at this -- it looks like he just signed it yesterday, even though it was well over 50 years ago.

PHILLIPS: Is that the original Spaulding wrapper?

DUNBAR: It is, underneath it. That's the box. Probably one of the reasons why it was protected all these years.

PHILLIPS: Wow, that's incredible. What could that bring in?

DUNBAR: Well, the estimate on this is $55,000 to $65,000. And again, you just don't know what can happen with emotion and passion.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Talk about a passion. My brother was an avid baseball card collector. I don't know. I don't see kids doing that so much anymore. You have a set of the old Topps cards?

DUNBAR: Well, surprising, that industry is still huge. But if you go back to the fifties, Topps came up with their first set in 1951. This is the very second set they did and the first color one in 1952. We have all 407 cards, all ranked PSA 8 on a scale in condition of 1 to 10. This is the most sought after. This is Mickey Mantle's what they consider to be his rookie card by Topps.

PHILLIPS: Oh my gosh. What else is in the collection?

DUNBAR: In the collection itself, the Topps cards?

PHILLIPS: Yeah.

DUNBAR: We have Mickey, we have Willie Mays right here, also considered his rookie card and we have Jackie Robinson and a person you may never have heard of, but also a very important card. This is Andy Pafko. He was the number one card in the series, which is the one that always got the gum on it, so really hard to find in great condition. PHILLIPS: Is the gum still in there?

DUNBAR: I think it's been chewed.

PHILLIPS: OK. I should have figured that. All right. Let's talk about two other things I know you brought with you. Pee Wee Reese's -- he actually signed a cap, is that right, that he wore?

DUNBAR: That's right. We have items from Pee Wee Reese's estate. He passed away in 1999. He had a glorious 18-year career with the Brooklyn and LA Dodgers. This is his cap from 1955, the only year that the Brooklyn Dodgers ever won the world championship and they did it in the first of six tries while he was playing, over the Yankees. And you flip it over and Pee Wee Reese signed right here, number 1, which was his uniform number in 1955.

PHILLIPS: Wow, that's pretty cool. All right. Now, his relationship with Jackie Robinson, you have something of the two of them. And as you show us that, tell us about their relationship, their friendship.

DUNBAR: Sure. Well, Pee Wee Reese was from the south. And Jackie Robinson broke the color line in major league baseball in 1957 -- 1947, excuse me. And at one time he was even slated to take Pee Wee Reese's position. And Pee Wee made it much easier for Jackie to join the big leagues because he was suffering from a lot of discrimination, a lot of taunting. This photo was taken in 1947 after Jackie Robinson suffered a particularly tough tirade in Cincinnati. Pee Wee Reese ran over from his shortstop position over to Jackie Robinson at third base and put his arm around him, which was a big deal back in 1947, a very important statement being made by Pee Wee Reese, accepting him on his team. This was shot afterwards in the locker room and this was Pee Wee Reese's most important photograph. It hung in his den in Louisville right up until the time he passed away.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Not only a great photograph, but represents such a great statement. Lee Dunbar, cool stuff. Director of collectibles, also vice president at Sotheby's. Now I know you are a big sports fan. When you see stuff like this, are you just dying to make a bid? Do you want to hang on to something?

DUNBAR: I have to say I often tell people I have one of the greatest jobs to be a part of this sale, which takes place December 2nd and public exhibition for the next six days. I'm in heaven.

PHILLIPS: I can just imagine. Lee Dunbar, thank you so much. Neat stuff.

DUNBAR: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, an old favorite returns to Neverland and an auction is giving Beatles fans something to strum about. Our Sibila Vargas joins me with entertainment headlines. What's the deal?

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra, it's been awhile since Cathy Rigby played Peter Pan on Broadway. But after a long hiatus, the cheerful one is making a comeback.

(MUSIC)

VARGAS: She's flying. The former Olympian is expected to cap off a high-flying tour of a musical with a limited Broadway engagement between Thanksgiving 2005 and January 2006. Mary Martin and Sandy Duncan have both played Peter Pan in the Broadway musical, but the tiny and acrobatic Rigby was most identified with the role. Rigby says this will be her last time in the green tights.

Well from Cathy Rigby to Eleanor Rigby, any Beatles fan would love to get their hands on some of the band's memorabilia. Well, now you can. A Beatles guitar is just one of the items being auctioned off at Christie's. And who could forget the veil worn by Madonna in her "Like a Virgin" video. That's expected to fetch as much as $2500. Also up for grabs is a book report by pop princess Britney Spears and a hand written letter from the late Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love.

PHILLIPS: What about that guitar? How much is it going for?

VARGAS: Oh, you want to know. If you want the Beatles guitar, you might have to dig deep into your pockets, Kyra. It's estimated to sell for about $500,000.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's cheaper than the Babe Ruth baseball, though. Or the Babe Ruth bat. That's right.

VARGAS: Let me ask you a question. What do "Baywatch," "The Anna Nicole Show" and "Jerry Springer" have in common?

PHILLIPS: A lot of cheese.

VARGAS: Give up? That's right.

They've all been voted the worst U.S. TV imports by our friends from across the Pond. According to a British poll of about 20 British TV buyers, the sun-bleached saga of California lifeguards, "Baywatch," ranked number one. The "Anna Nicole Show" came in second followed by "Wild Palms" and "Manimal." Others on the list were the "Jerry Springer Show" and "Extreme Makeover. And Kyra, what is "Manimal"? "Wild Palms"? I don't remember that show?

PHILLIPS: Oh boy. I don't remember "Baywatch" very much, or Anna Nicole. Some things you like not to know about. Sibila, thanks so much.

VARGAS: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: Still ahead LIVE FROM, harmony and healing. After a tragedy struck, she opened her heart and home. Now this woman's living room is one of the hottest tickets in tow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Jazz can be described as music of the soul. But for one New York City woman, it comes straight from the heart. Through it she's found a unique way to express her grief and honor the memory of her late son. CNN's Jason Carroll with more.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stand outside this building in Harlem on any given Sunday and listen. You might hear the faint echoes of jazz. It's not the spirits of Duke Ellington or Count Basie, both lived here back in the day. It's the spirit of Marjorie Eliot in apartment 3F at 555 Edgecombe Avenue that's making it all possible.

MARJORIE ELIOT, JAZZ MUSICIAN: It's a kind of communion of spirits. You know, from all kinds of places.

CARROLL: Every Sunday for the past 10 years, Marjorie has hosted jazz concerts right in her living room free of charge in honor of her son Philip who died a little more than 10 years ago.

ELIOT: He passed on a Sunday, and I really used to go crazy on Sundays. I say that something joyous has been threaded through a very sad story.

CARROLL: Marjorie, a former actress and musician herself, never had a problem finding other musicians. But in the beginning, it was hard finding an audience.

ELIOT: I used to beg people to come out of the laundry room. Please come upstairs. You don't have to get dressed up. Silly.

CARROLL: Now thanks to word of mouth, they come from all over the world to sit in her living room, hallway, wherever.

ELIOT: They get a chance to hear people unplugged, and they are right on top of them. They can experience them, they can talk to them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very cool. You could tell something is going to happen here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a nice experience to go back and tell people in North Carolina what I went and did.

ELIOT: But it doesn't surprise me. It's thrilling because they really embrace the notion of what I do. They just come with an outpouring of love and generosity and honesty.

CARROLL: Keep on jamming Marjorie. The living room is larger than you could possibly imagine.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PHILLIPS: Are you planning to do some holiday shopping from the comfort of your own home this year? Well, you're not the only one. Jennifer Westhoven joins us now from New York with the lowdown on holiday shopping. I want to know all the good deals, Jen.

JENNIFER WESTHOVEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I've got to tell you, Kyra, this is great if you are a deal hunter. Let me get to that in a minute. So you hear about this Internet shopping and it's logical. You might think, hey, that's got to be bad for those traditional stores. But maybe not so bad because one of the things that's happening is, according to research group Gardener, about two out of five people are actually just using the Internet to research their purchases. They are actually going in and buying them in person.

But now you get to this comparison shopping, which is something really good. You can use site like Froogle out there, you can compare all kinds of prices out there and then you go to the right place the first time when you go in person instead of going to five and six. By the way, some research firms say online sales could be 20 percent higher this year than last year. Some of the estimates out there, a little bit more modest, though. Here's something your boss will hate to hear. Most people do their online shopping during work hours. That's according to one market firm. And it says that Monday is the busiest shopping day and the busiest time is, oh, right around lunchtime. Noon to 3:00 p.m. But we know that never happens here at CNN.

PHILLIPS: Of course not. We never go online while we're working. As I'm over here cht cht cht cht cht cht cht.

WESTHOVEN: Is that what you were doing?

PHILLIPS: Of course not. I was listening to you. All right. What about the markets?

WESTHOVEN: Actually, really quiet today on Wall Street, but they did make it fun. Today the lightest trading day of the year. That actually happens a lot on this day. Just 501 million shares changed hands. Take a look at the number moves here. Real small. The Dow not up even two points and the NASDAQ was down, but just fractionally. Actually why at the New York Stock Exchange, they bring in all the kids today. That's the latest from New York. Kyra back to you in Atlanta.

PHILLIPS: All right, Jen, I lied. You know I'm always online, but I'm doing research.

WESTHOVEN: You were on e-Harmony.

PHILLIPS: Oh, yeah. Just don't tell my husband, all right? Thanks Jen. All right. We'll see you later.

Well, that's all for this hour of LIVE FROM. Coming up, much more serious story. We're going to head back to Iraq where more bodies have been found in Mosul. What's the cause of all the carnage? Well, a report from Baghdad straight ahead.

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