Anyone collect signed checks?

[Gary Dunaier]

Here are a couple of Casey Stengel checks that ought to be of particular interest to Mets fans.

First, a check dated 9/23/62, made out to the ballboy. 9/23/62 was the final Mets home game of their inaugural season, so this may have been an end-of-season gratuity. Interesting to note that Stengel apparently misspelled the ballboy's name, because it was corrected in the endorsement on the back.



This October 1961 Casey Stengel check makes reference to the New York Mets six months before the team ever played a game! It was written 10/12/61, two days after the expansion draft in which the players who would comprise the inaugural 1962 Mets were selected, and refers to the club in the lower left where he wrote "N.Y. Expenses N.Y. Mets."