Wednesday, April 08, 2015

Duke Snider's Testy Letter to Buzzie Bavasi

The Dodgers 1956 Tour of Japan appears to be a major theme in SCP's current sports memorabilia auction.  Last week I shared a complete grouping of signed contracts for the tour.  Now that the auction is live I see that they also have an unique personal letter addressed to Dodger GM Buzzie Bavasi from Duke Snider regarding said trip.  And it's not exactly a friendly letter.

From what I understand, Snider received a promise from Bavasi that he be allowed to leave the trip early, but once there was unable to do so.  Obviously, this irked the future Hall of Famer.  Duke decided to put pen to paper, on Hotel New Nagoya letterhead no less, and made his feelings known right then and there.

An interesting little tidbit is found in the second paragraph were Snider mentions that Bavasi himself, Furillo and Maglie are the only smart ones - presumably for not going on the trip in the first place.  I wonder what that's all about. 

Check it out in full below.  You'll notice that I couldn't quite make out a couple of words.
Dear Buzzie -

Received your short but to the point letter the other day and believe me it left me with a real empty feeling.  I wish you hadn't even written the letter.  I don't want to even argue about the matter of my coming home early.  If you can't remember a promise then let's forget about it.  Someday I may promise something and be forgetful too.  I now find that getting home at the ball clubs earliest convenience is the second plane Nov 16.  So be it!

The Japanese people are very nice and the trip is a good one.  But I find the only wise people were you, Furillo and Maglie.

Not much news from here.  Give you family my best wishes -

Your Wandering Outfielder,

Duke
BTW, I'll feature more Dodger collectibles from this auction in the coming days.  So stay tuned.
(Auction Link)

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