#191 George Kell
In case you haven't heard, Hall of Fame third baseman George Kell passed away this morning. You can read about it here.
I got this card signed through the mail just this past November. This was the first card that I had ever received that had a Hall of Fame inscription.
That was around the time when I first got involved writing to retired players. I found The Bench and it's free list of player addresses and starting TTMing consistently for the first time since high school. One of the hard things for me to do when I ask for an autograph is to relate to a player whose career was way before I was even born. That was the case when I wrote to Mr. Kell. When I was reading the list of players, I recognized his name. I looked him up and saw that he was a Hall of Famer. After seeing that, I decided to write to him. I don't remember what I wrote in the letter, but I'm sure it was pretty short. Nevertheless, Mr. Kell was nice enough to sign and return my card in just a couple of weeks.
My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.
Mr. Kell was a friend to collectors for so long. He had some tough times late in his life, a house fire in 2001, a near fatal car accident in 2004, but he weathered it all with grace. -Scott
ReplyDeleteI got that same card signed a few years ago. It's a shame to hear of the passing of such a great friend to baseball fans and autograph collectors.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great autographed card to have. I read some stories that he was stil signing for people TTM last week! He was a good person.
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