Bidding suspended on baseball great’s letters amid inquiry into whether some vanished from NY
By APFriday, July 3, 2009
Baseball trove may have long-missing docs from NY
NEW YORK — A collection of letters by one of baseball’s founding fathers has been pulled from auction while authorities look into whether the trove contains documents that vanished from New York.
The letters were 19th century correspondence to Harry Wright. He built the country’s first professional baseball team in Cincinnati and went on to manage in several cities.
Similar letters to the Hall of Famer have been missing from the New York Public Library for several decades.
Now, the FBI is looking into whether the newly discovered trove contains any of the documents.
Exton, Pa.-based Hunt Auctions president David Hunt says he hasn’t seen any evidence yet that the letters were stolen, but thought it prudent to suspend bidding. He declined to identify the seller.
