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Three 1937 Cy Young Letters to Cleland Regarding D

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Three 1937 Cy Young Letters to Cleland Regarding Donations to Baseball's New Hall of Fame
The first dated letter to Cleland from any of the gentlemen who were among the first five inductees was authored by Cy Young, the grand old man who obviously understood the historical significance of the Cooperstown plan. Beginning on February 28 1937, Young wrote three long letters to Mr. Cleland. Each of the three, all hand written by the great pitcher, is in flowing dark ink. The three Young letters are significant not only because of Cy's status but because once he embraced the idea to donate, others soon followed. In a sense, the dam was broken.

Much to Cleland's delight, Young initially wrote that he was not only willing to donate suitable relics but he had a very impressive list of items for consideration. Among the "collectibles" he specified were many of the greatest of the artifacts that the Hall was ever fortunate enough to be able to showcase. First Young wrote of his impressive collection of photos by casually mentioning "lots of pictures"; he also specified the "base ball that (he) used in 1908" when winning his 500^th ball game; he continued by referring to his private collection of his baseball trophies (he called them his "cups"); and finally mentioned his "last uniform while with the Boston Braves in 1911."

Upon reading the first letter, Mr. Cleland could hardly contain his joy. He took advantage of Cy Young's gracious offer and immediately made arrangements to drive to Ohio, meet Mr. Young himself and pick up the booty. Cy Young wrote two more letters within weeks, encouraging the trip and even giving his new friend precise directions to his home. If that is not enough, the gracious former ballplayer, by the mid 1930's a "gentleman farmer" wrote to Cleland and stated that when he came to Ohio they would take in a baseball game in Canton and the visiting New Yorker would meet "some real fans." LOA from PSA/DNA.

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