His father played for the White Sox for thirteen years. Billy Sr. was the first in a long line of great defensive catchers for the Sox and was part of the 1906 World Champions.
Billy Jr. played for both the White Sox and the Detroit Tigers, like his father did. He stretched out his career, sporadically, from 1931 until his last MLB appearance in 1947, for the Pirates.
Like I mentioned earlier, the Crosley Field website had a treasure trove of information about Billy Sullivan Jr. on it, mostly because of the Cincinnati Reds connection. Billy Jr. played with the Reds in 1935.
Eric Bowyer unearthed boxes and boxes of pictures, letters, documents and other personal effects of Billy Sullivan Jr. The website documents in great detail, the condition of the items found in Billy's storage shed. Some of it isn't pretty, but what was salvaged from the shed turned out to be amazing.
Earlier this month, Eric contacted me about obtaining a few pieces of memorabilia for my collection. On Saturday afternoon, an envelope arrived in the mail with a letter, two photographs and a surprise.
The first photo shows the contents of a box from the sorting. There is a newspaper clipping, front and center, about Billy Jr.'s going to Navy, the bottom of a photo of Billy Jr. in his White Sox uniform, and an assortment of other papers.
The other photograph shows letters and documents spread across a table. Scattered among the papers are a few of Billy Sr.'s 1961 Fleer baseball cards.That was just the appetizer. The real treat came next! Three different canceled checks, each with a big, bold and clear signature of Billy Sullivan Jr.
Simply amazing!Thank you, Eric! I can't begin to thank you enough for your generosity! These checks are a wonderful addition to my White Sox collection.
1 comment:
Very cool addition and what a great gesture on his part.
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