Fans

Baseball: America's Home Run

Fans and amateur players alike used the mail to express admiration for their favorite players, complain about management decisions, or even learn how to play the game.

Three museum display cases with objects related to fan mail and baseball players.
Jackie Robinson speaking to reporters in Birmingham, Alabama
Fan Mail: Jackie Robinson

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (1919–1972) played baseball in the U.S. Army, the Negro Leagues, and the minor leagues before taking the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.

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Pane of twenty Dr. Sally K. Ride stamps
Fan Art: Sally K. Ride

As a child, astronaut and philatelist Sally Ride (1951–2012) had no ambitions toward space exploration. Instead, California baseball captured her imagination after the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Ride's native Los Angeles in 1958 and won the following year's World Series.

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Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis posing for a photo at a desk
Fan Mail: Babe Ruth

Kenesaw Mountain Landis's efforts to root out gambling and corruption met with approval until November 1921, when he suspended Babe Ruth for violating a rarely enforced rule against exhibition games in the off season.

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Baseball: America’s Home Run