[Bridwell]

When I was in elementary school, my older brother and I borrowed a Jack Spelling list of home addresses of ex-major leaguers. We wrote away to hundreds of players in 1971-1973. We got a Baseball Encyclopedia as a Christmas gift and studied the statistics. We wrote to the old-timers, mostly, thinking we could try and get the younger players later on. Stamps were 8 cents each and we never paid for an autograph. At least 1/3 of the players wrote back. As far as T206 players, I got autographs back from George McBride, Donie Bush, Larry Doyle, Davy Jones, Fred Snodgrass, Paddy Livingston and Rube Marquard. Sometimes the guys sent us a short note or a photo. It started me on the road to collecting other T206 players on 3x5 cards, government postcards or cuts. After auctions and trades, I have 100 different T206 players now.