What could be more exciting than receiving a letter in the mail from your favorite baseball player? How about if that letter was from Babe Ruth? As big a fan of kids as they were of him the Babe was diligent in returning his correspondence and continued answering requests for autographs almost until his dying day. This undated type-written letter was sent to Ruth on a 6” x 9” sheet of the Burlington Hotel (Vermont Avenue at Thomas Circle) Washington D.C. stationary from one Jim Montgomery Jr. and reads as follows:
            “Dear Babe, Do you think that you can send me your autograph please. I read up the sports page every day to see about how and what you are doing. I sent in for your book on baseball and it helped me develop swell form. I want to ask you a few questions about your career to prove to some of the boys in school thant [sic] I think are goofy. Did you throw left handed? When you bat do you wait after you hit one or do you start running the moment you hear the crack of the bat? That is all the questions that I want to ask you. I am nuts about baseball and pitch for the eleven year old team of Germantown Friends School. I pitch right handed, but bat left handed. Do you remember a boy named Lincoln Richmond whom you signed s baseball for? He goes to our school too,
            Sincerely Yours, Jim Montgomery Jr. (hand written)
            P.S. When you send your autograph, If you do, do you think that you could ask “Rabbit Marenville to send his too? My name And Address is;

Jimmie Montgomery Jr.
314 Wellesley Road
Germantown, Mt Airy
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

            Am enclosing a stamped and addressed envelope.

            Of course the Babe answered this very candid and sincere letter in the same spirit as it was written, on its reverse side, in his very recognizable and near perfect penmanship:

            Dear Jimmie,

            I have thrown left handed all my life.
            All ways (sic) start running the moment you hit the ball,
                                                                                    Sincerely
                                                                                    Babe Ruth

            Ruth’s signature is written crisply in black steel tip fountain pen at the bottom of the page, which shows minor wear with some evident folding and creasing and staining along the top, but all four corners are perfectly intact. This joyful exchange of correspondence comes with JSA LOA (Y28598).   

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