Archibald “Moonlight” Graham played two innings of right field in a major league baseball game in 1905 and had zero at-bats. That was the extent of his big league career, a forgettable footnote in baseball history.
Every few months, for one reason or another, he’s visited the fourth floor of the school’s Gray Hall, a 182-year-old building less than three blocks from Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Each time, he’d pass a few cabinets, and each time, for 28 years, he’d half-pause and half-wonder if anything from Graham’s past was inside.
Before this discovery, there were only a handful — as few as five or six — known Graham signatures. In the letters, Pitrof found four more.Graham went on to become an adored doctor, as depicted in the movie. He also made essential contributions to medical research. It was his 1945 study that prompted pediatricians to begin regularly monitoring blood pressure in children.
Algard, 52, has been collecting autographs since he was 5, and his collection numbers in the thousands. He estimates he has six Hank Aaron autographs. But the Graham autograph is the one he went the greatest lengths to get. “Field of Dreams,” a reflection on the relationship between a father and son, stars Kevin Costner as an Iowa farmer who plows over his corn to build a diamond for ghosts of baseball’s past. Graham is depicted both as a young ballplayer and, later in life, as a cherished pediatrician.
Letters between Graham and the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s dean sat in the cabinet, probably for decades. Despite not being preserved until recently, they remain in good condition. They are easy to read and detail practical matters: Graham sending a certification from a former school , Graham requesting an academic catalogue for a friend, and the dean writing that he is “very glad to see that you have done so well” academically.
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