Original Letters...literally a thing of the past

[Jersey City Giants]

I was just thinking about some letters I received back from baseball and hockey players when I was a kid. Now none are really worth anything out in the open market, but they are like gold to me as they came directly from the player and were hand written. Kids today will rarely (if ever) get those as no one writes letters anymore. The content is the cool part for me as it goes to the history of the sport in many cases. One player included two signed cards in the letter back to me when I wrote to ask him a question (I didn't even ask for the cards). I put them next to the letter and still have both to this day. Anyone else have handwritten letters (not the typed auto pen responses) from players (sport does not matter) when they were kids?

[commishbob]

Former NY Football Giants running back was the featured speaker at a Rotary Club luncheon many years ago. He was seated next to my uncle during the meal. The subject of sports-writing came up and my uncle mentioned that I was working through college J-school with hopes of being a writer. Johnson asked for my address and without any prompting from my uncle later hand wrote and mailed me a long letter about goals and perseverance, etc. It was probably three 5x7 stationary page long. it was so out-of-the-blue. I don't think I appreciated it then as much as I have since.

I've looked for it a few times recently but I believe it is in my late parents stored boxes at my sister's home.

[bgar3]

I love handwritten letters and have some from players in the 1950’s but also other letters about baseball from the 1860’s and 1870’s. I value them much more than cards, cuts etc.

[cubman1941]

I have some letters from a couple Cubs of the 50's and one from Dewey Williams who was with the Cubs in the mid 40's. However my favorite one is from Art Weiss who played with the Cubs from 1922 -25. This was back in 1986 when I first got back into collecting. There was an article in SCD about Exhibit cards. I wasn't very smart then and sent him a letter asking if he had any Exhibit cards of himself. His reply was very nice and said he didn't but sent me a copy of one along with two autographed pieces of paper. I will always treasure this and have the copy, the letter, the two autographed pieces of paper and an Exhibit card I got later framed and hanging on my wall.

[T206Collector]

I don't have any of my own letters to players, but I do collect letters from collectors seeking autographs of pre-war players. One of my favorites is this letter from Doc Steen to Zack Wheat, on the back of which Wheat replied to him. The original SASE and the signed M101-2 Sporting News make this a truly special collection.

[packs]

Not sure how many people are still using postcards either.

Here's one from Walter Johnson to a friend in June 1908. He talks about winning a game in Cleveland and then traveling by boat to Detroit.

I believe this to be the earliest Big Train example in the hobby:

[Leon]

No need to reference this..