Rabbit Maranville/Springfield MA nationals

[sanna1999]

Hi!
I was going through my grandmother's scrapbook she gave me 2o+ years ago when she died, and I found some - at least to me - interesting correspondence, notes, etc. between my grgrandfather and Rabbit Maranville. They are hand-written and sign by RM and seem to be about his appearances in Springfield circa 1941, ie "..was very much disappointed in not receiving check..don't worry about me saying anything about the club or its condition." Any help on not just if this is worth anything, but where I can go to learn more? Thanks!

[DaClyde]

Any chance you could scan them and upload them to Footnote.com for all to see? They'd be a fascinatingly personal bit of baseball history.

[flyingdutchdude]

Rabbit is a fairly tough signature.

Did he sign the letter with his full name or just his first? Is the content baseball related? .....its tough to tell from the short description.

PS. blind rough estimate $400-$1200

Picture would be helpful in being more accurate with value.

[sanna1999]

Thanks for the replies. I'm rereading through the stuff and it is very interesting, to me. I have 12 handwritten letters, most on Walter J. Maranville stationary, dating from 1/3/40 to 1/24/41; 5 are signed with Rabbit Maranville, the others just with Rabbit. The content is about baseball; mostly he wants money sent to him and says times are hard, a few names talked about for prospects/signing for the Springfield Nationals, frustration on both sides as to how the club is going, also some personal notes about his wife being sick, having a lonely holiday, etc. In the scrapbook are lots of newspaper articles talking about the tension in Springfield around keeping the club; I have my gr grandfather's responses to Rabbit as well which are pretty colorful, a photo of the 1939 Springfield Nationals and some other photos which I don't know (maybe souvenier-ish stuff as one definitely has Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig). I will definitely try to post some scans on the site mentioned; like I said, it is an interesting tale. Thanks!

[sanna1999]

DaClyde - I did scan just a few things in footnote.com but am unsure how it works; it's under this name, sanna1999, and the story page Carl Linberg scrapbook.

[flyingdutchdude]

This will give you an idea of what the letters are worth.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Old-RABBIT-MARANVILLE-Autograph-Braves-Cardinals-d-54_W0QQitemZ220191060876

My older price guide lists a Maranville 3X5 (sort of like the one on eBay) at $400 and a Letter at $1000.

The plus factor on your group is they are on his stationary and have baseball content.

The letters that are just signed "Rabbit" will be worth 1/3 to 1/2 the full name letters, but since they are on his stationary they may bring more.

If you want to sell them on eBay in the near future I can help you out and give you tips on how to list them. You may want to get a COA from PSA/DNA but its not really necessary for a letter. No one fakes a letter, they fake signed balls/3X5s/photos.

Whatever you do, you might not want to sell them all at the same time, spread them out a bit so you dont flood the market. Good luck

[flyingdutchdude]

Sanna, I couldnt find the photos. Can you please send me them to my email address
frank@centuryoldcards.com

Also send a photo of the Ruth/Gehrig thing. I can ID it for you. It may be worth good $$ too.

Frank

[DaClyde]

DaClyde - I did scan just a few things in footnote.com but am unsure how it works; it's under this name, sanna1999, and the story page Carl Linberg scrapbook.

Wonderful! Footnote is primarily a history site where people can post pretty much anything of historical significance, annotate the contents (making them show up in the search), comment on them and even link related photos, documents, correspondance or other things together. They've got a deal with the National Archives and are digitizing millions of pages of the Archives records, largely military related at the moment (Revolutionary & Civil War service records and pensions and all sorts of documents and correspondance). They are a subscription based site, but all user submitted content is always free, and they keep lots of other of the content available for free.

When you click on a item, it will bring it up in the main viewer. From there, you can click on the type of annotation you want to make (is it a person in a photo, a date, a passage of text or just a name) and lasso it on the screen. Then just enter what you're identifying and it is included in the search index.

On the right side, you can add comments describing what the document in question is, like you could say who the letter involves and the relationship between the parties included therein.

Here's one I uploaded for an example: http://www.footnote.com/image/29058740/

It's a family photo of my great-great grandparents family. Everyone in the photo has been annotated and the photo has been linked to other related items I uploaded like other photos, a marriage certificate and a family bible.

[sanna1999]

DaClyde-
Thanks for the tip. It is a great site. I tried to annotate - so if it's annotated, it's searchable? And once someone finds one, do they see everything?

[ipitch]

Why not just post them here? :shrug:

[DaClyde]

DaClyde-
Thanks for the tip. It is a great site. I tried to annotate - so if it's annotated, it's searchable? And once someone finds one, do they see everything?

Yes, once something is annotated, it is searchable, and all images uploaded by users are freely available to everyone. It usually will appear in the search within 24 hours.

Here's a link to your scrapbook in the meantime:

http://www.footnote.com/page/2244/carl-linbergs-scrapbook


Why not just post them here?

Because Footnote has a much larger audience than Baseball Fever and can take uploads of high quality photos and documents without much concern for drive space.