Feller rookie card

[FrankWakefield]

Adam, thank you for the smile.

Years ago I developed a lasting friendship with a fellow who'd been collecting vintage cards since the 50's. As a Kentucky teenager he went with his Dad and Uncle, I think, on a trip to Yankee Stadium in 1953. He had saved money to spend on the trip. Outside the stadium they go up to a vending stand, and he sees Topps baseball cards, so he buys two packs. Upon opening them, he sees that there are 1952 Topps cards, depicting players he'd not seen back home. He thought he had a set of 1952's, but these were all higher numbers than he'd seen before. The entire box was of high number packs. He spent most of his money getting those cards, my recollection is he said he got 2 Mantle's out of that box. I learned quite a bit from this man.

One thing he told me was that when he went to shows in the 1960's and 1970's, that Bob Feller would often just show up. He'd sign for kids and grownups. He said that when he'd set up as a dealer, that he learned to do like the other dealers did when Feller showed up, and that was to hide all Bob Feller items. He said Feller would sign everything. And the standing joke was that whatever it was, it was rarer to find it unsigned than for it to have Feller's autograph.

Years later, a lawyer friend of mine had been travelling in New York state, and when he returned he told me that he'd picked up something he found in a baseball card shop to give me when he was in Cooperstown. He came into my office and I could see as he walked in that it was a signed yellow HOF postcard. At a distance, I asked, "Is that signed by Bob Feller?" He seemed a bit suprised, how could I read that from so far away....