March 25, 2021: Spring Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/25/2021
This is a truly extraordinary artifact from one Baseball Hall of Famer writing to his wife and daughter and crabbing mightily about his boss, another HOF figure, Branch Rickey. Dated May 4, 1942, on the stationery of the Hotel New Yorker in Midtown Manhattan, Cardinals manager Billy Southworth puts the smackdown on Rickey in two separate pages, initially on the first side and later on in the second side of the 8 ¼-by-11-inch letterhead. In the first part, Southworth laments about Rickey’s lies, adding that his general manager boss has tried to kill him with his Rochester newspaperman. On the other side of the page near the end of the letter that fills up virtually every square inch of the page, Southworth notes that he does not give a damn what Rickey has to say, though in his politeness with wife and daughter writes in his elegant cursive, d ---. In the next sentence he points out that Rickey is just plain h.s. Heady stuff from a manager en route to the first of three consecutive 100-win seasons in St. Louis, three pennants and two World Series titles. It was arguably the greatest stretch in the club’s fabled history, and Rickey wasn’t around to aggravate Southworth for all of it. He departed for his date with history in Brooklyn as general manager and ultimately as owner. The letter is nothing short of sensational, in Ex-Mt-Plus condition and signed “Billy” at the end. Comes with the envelope, same fine condition but top edge torn across in traditional opening, in Hotel New Yorker envelope, with Air-Mail stamping, and 6-Cent stamp with New York City postmark. Full LOA from BAS.
Billy Southworth Letter With Remarkable Baseball Content (1942) (BAS)
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