The Mantle letter in question is actually a form response that Michael Kovalovsky — a lifelong Yankees fan — received in 1959 after he wrote a letter to The Mick. However, Mick’s form letter is hand signed by the Hall of Famer … which is pretty freakin’ cool courthousenews.com.
According to the lawsuit, Kovalovsky loaned the 41-year-old letter — along with other cool memorabilia — to the Yankees last year. Problem is, according to the docs, the team failed to return all but one of the items. The lawsuit, filed in Florida, was first published on
The Yanks did promise, in writing, to return the items if they “locate them.” But when Kovalovsky asked about compensation in case the letter never turns up, his attorney tells TMZ the Yankees tried to argue that the Mantle letter wasn’t worth anything.
Kovalovsky is suing the Bronx Bombers for $100k — to cover the value of his memorabilia (an estimated $15k) plus attorney’s fees. The Yankees have not returned calls for comment.
TMZ has a copy of the signed Mickey Mantle letter, but from what I can tell it isn’t much of anything. The letter seems to be just an acknowledgement from the New York Yankees. What I’m trying to say is..it looks like the Yankees used to send out large quantities of these letters to people who wrote to the organization, and they just filled in the addresses and names. The thing that makes it valuable though, is the fact that it’s on Yankees stationary and it’s hand signed by the great Mickey Mantle. This has more sentimental value, because the letter is actually addressed personally to Kovalsky. If it were to go up for auction..who would want that? If this were given to a baseball card company, that letter would most likely be chopped up and they would use the signature to make an autographed card of the Mick. The man should definitely get something from the New York Yankees organization for losing the letter, but $100K is outrageous.
Click on the banner to see the copy of the letter:
M. B. Rozell
Kevin Rozell
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