
Legendary manager Connie Mack writes to Jack Lang in this letter of 1953. The Athletics owner clarifies some of the choices of players for the Carstairs Whiskey baseball promotion of the 1940s.
Mack lent his name to the company that made banners heralding “Connie Mack’s All Time Team“. The skipper names a player at each position. Though Mack certainly had the qualifications to pick an all time team – he started playing in 1886 and had managed until the banners were made in the ’40’s – it appears others made some of the choices for the team.
“…I did not pick (Pie) Traynor and George Sisler,” Mack writes. “The sport writers picked the team that you wrote…I did pick George Sisler at one time. I never have picked Traynor at third. I was in favor of Corcoran who was a Buffalo man.”
Mack appears to be humoring Lang, the editor of the Buffalo paper at the time.
Though Mack correspondence is quite prevalent in the hobby, this piece stands out. The majority of Mack’s handwritten letters are on hotel or personal letterhead. This one is on the ornate stationary of the Philadelphia Athletics. That, along with the postmarked envelope nearly guarantee its authenticity.
Ninety years old at the time he wrote this, Mack mentions two of the game’s great corner infielders. Hall of Fame writer Lang must’ve been pleased to receive the letter.
The rest of the players chosen for the banner as as follows: pitchers Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, catchers Bill Dickey, Mickey Cochrane, first base George Sisler, second base Eddie Collins, third base Pie Traynor, shortstop Honus Wagner, leftfield Ty Cobb, centerfield Tris Speaker, and of course Babe Ruth in rightfield.