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Jason LThanks for taking the time to read all this....I have to say that, family member aside, it has been a great baseball learning experience to focus on one player, and see where it takes me...
Also, I have to say the more I think about it, the more significant I find this to be.
I wish I could say I knew the man, but unfortunately I never got a chance to even meet him, as he died young, and the year before I was born, I believe.
Lee's professional career spanned an interesting time, from what I have been able to piece together.
He was one of the first ever free agents in 1936, when Landis declared a small group to be free agents due to some discrepancies they had with their clubs...all the way until 1960, when he is on record for having been included in the trade that brought a rookie named Don Zimmer to the Cubs...and now to learn of this distinction is quite a remarkable piece to the puzzle...
He apparently was a little bit of a hot-head at times, and my grandfather tells the story of how he finally made it down to a ballgame to watch him, at Wrigley, and Lee got tossed from the game real early for some sort of dispute with a call or something...grandpa was ticked! Joe Garagiola mentioned him for a similar reason in one of his books.
At any rate, wouldn't it be great to have such an award!?!...wasn't someone doing a mainstream docu-drama about Jackie these days? wonder if I could contact them with that story and see if Lee can't be worked in, as a historical reference?...
I am planning on creating some sort of website to include all my research...cards, magazine, contracts, photos, stories, etc...
edited for some spelling