Damn Yankees

[jdr3]

Yankees Lawsuit -- The 'Lost' Mickey Mantle Letter

6/30/2010 12:05 AM PDT by TMZ Staff
TMZ has obtained a copy of a signed Mickey Mantle letter at the center of a nasty lawsuit filed against the New York Yankees -- in which a fan claims the MLB team somehow lost his treasured keepsake.

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

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 courthousenews.com.

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.

[cjclong]

Just out of curiosity, how do we know that Mantle hand signed the letter himself rather than it being a "clubhouse" signature as a number of his signatures of balls during that era turned out to be when it was determined clubhouse employees were signing his name. Either way, I hope the guy gets his letter back. This shows, unfortunately, the risk of letting anyone besides yourself have custody of items you want to keep.

[legaleagle92481]

Sorry but why would the Mick handsign a form letter for a total stranger? Mick was known NOT to sign his own fan mail. I would be shocked if the "signature" was real.

[gingi79]

Not an expert on Mickey signatures but it doesn't look like any of the ones I have seen.

Thankfully we do have a pretty good expert on the signature here on the website. Hopefully Sammy will chime in

[chakes89]

If anyone cares, there is a typo on line 21 of Count #2

[jdr3]

You'd think the Yankees could find something better to represent him besides a fan letter.

[metsbats]

The signature on that document was what Mantle's signature looked like back in 1959.

His signature eventually evolved to what we are accustomed to seeing when he signed autographs in the 80 and 90's.