A collection of half century year-old letters from a young George Steinbrenner to a woman who had captured his fancy are being offered on eBay.
Mary Jane Schriner met the future Yankees owner when she was 16 years old and he was entering Williams College in Ohio. The two shared dates and friendship until they grew apart during their college years. Steinbrenner died earlier this summer at age 80.
From 1949-1951, Steinbrenner sent at least 19 letters to the girl in Ohio. Some are handwritten while others are typed. The content includes talk of Steinbrenner’s difficulties in college, future plans and some good natured kidding dished out by the future shipbuilding company chief to the girl who had caught his eye.
Mary Jane Schriner is now 77 and now her son Michael is looking for a buyer for the letters. He contacted auction houses but has instead recently placed them on eBay.
According to Schriner, the Steinbrenner family asked the Hall of Fame not to accept them as a donation because they “would cause untold embarrassment and damages to the Steinbrenner family”. He also says attempts to include them in a book were thwarted because copyright law requires that the original author or their heirs grant the use for reproduction.
“My mother has no interest in upsetting or embarrassing the Steinbrenner family,” Michael Schriner wrote in the eBay listing. “She felt that her letters showed George in a positive light, as a fun loving and caring person. Since she has lost the opportunity to write her book or to share her letters with the Baseball Hall of Fame, she has decided to part with them.”
The minimum bid for the group of 19 letters from the future Yankees boss is a hefty $100,000. Here’s the listing.
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