He hoped Graham, a school physician, might have signed one for a student.ĭozens of yearbooks and 17 years into his search, Algard found it: a 1943 yearbook Graham signed for a graduate before the young man headed to World War II.Īlgard, 52, has been collecting autographs since he was 5 years old, and his collection numbers in the thousands. He took a meticulous approach, purchasing yearbooks from a high school in Chisholm, Minnesota, where Graham lived as an adult. Jonathan Algard created an eBay account in 2000 in pursuit of a historic needle in a haystack.Ī baseball autograph collector who works in a foundry in Pennsylvania, Algard had the remote goal of landing a Graham signature. “He was a role model.” ‘Everybody had that chance that got away’ There’s a bounce in Pitrof’s step and a thrill in his voice when he discusses Graham, who some categorize as a “cult figure.” It was his 1945 study that prompted pediatricians to begin regularly monitoring blood pressure in children. He also made essential contributions to medical research. Graham went on to become an adored doctor, as depicted in the movie. In another, he asked whether there was “any chance for me to get into Bay View” in a training position, likely referencing the current Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center east of the city.īefore this discovery, there were only a handful - as few as five or six - known Graham signatures. In one letter, he sought a recommendation. Writing from Scranton, Pennsylvania - where he played in the minor leagues after his MLB appearance with the New York Giants - Graham noted he was enclosing $30, which he owed to the institution. They include Graham’s matriculation cards and correspondence with the school. The Graham documents span 1903 to 1905, the years Graham attended medical school in Baltimore while continuing his baseball career in the summers. “There was that tingling feeling,” Pitrof said. There, within a stack of documents dating from 1812 to 1916, he found a dozen letters between the school’s dean and one Archie Graham, one of baseball history’s most unassuming legends. 12 next to the filming location in Iowa, Pitrof - on a hunch there might be some trace of Graham - decided to peek in the cabinets. 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.Īfter Major League Baseball played its first “Field of Dreams” game on Aug. He’s also a baseball fanatic who’s long been intrigued by Graham.Įvery 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. Pitrof is the medical school alumni association’s executive director.

He spent most of his life as a doctor and attended the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore in the early 1900s.

Moonlight graham