Mel Ott debuted with the New York Giants in 1926, just eight weeks after turning 17. That season, he played 35 games and impressed with a .383 batting average and a .393 on-base percentage. In 1927, the Giants gave Ott more chances. He appeared in 82 games and hit a solid .282.

Ott’s breakout came in 1928, his age-19 season. He played 124 games and slashed .322/.397/.524, showing star-level production. By the end of that year, Ott had played 241 games as a teenager, setting a new major league record. That mark stood for nearly 50 years.

In 1973, the Milwaukee Brewers drafted Robin Yount out of Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California. Less than a year later, he made the big-league roster.

In 1974, Yount appeared in 107 games, earning more trust from the team. By 1975, he took over as Milwaukee’s everyday shortstop. As his 20th birthday neared, Yount continued piling up games. By the time Yount left his teenage years, he had played in 243 games—two more than Ott.

In a testament to the difficult of playing at baseball’s highest level as a teen, Yount’s record has lasted even longer than Ott’s.

Shown above is a lineup card signed by Yount. The September 26, 1991 contest shows Robin in the cleanup spot of manager Tom Trebelhorn’s lineup.

The game was historic because Yount passed another inner-circle Cooperstown man on an all-time list. Robin’s 4th inning single gave him 2,874 career hits, one more than the great Babe Ruth.

Yount signed the card and added the inscription, “PASSED BABE RUTH ON HITS LIST”.

Lineup cards from historic games like this are usually found either in the player’s possession or at the Hall of Fame.

For many years Mel Ott was the National League’s greatest home runs hitter. A six-time league leaders in round trippers, Ott was often among the top home run hitters.

Soon after breaking into the bigs in 1926 he became one of the Senior Circuit’s best hitters. On August 12, 1937 Ott hit his 299th career home run to pass Rogers Hornsby’s NL mark. For each of the next 212 homers Ott hit he extended the league’s mark. For the rest of Ott’s life, he held the top spot.

By the time he retired in 1947, Ott had 511 home runs to his credit. It took nearly two decades until Willie Mays surpassed it in 1966. In the collection is a handwritten letter from the Giant’s star written on October 1, 1958.

Mel Ott is one of the greatest players in National League history. The right fielder represented the Senior Circuit in 11 consecutive All Star Games starting in 1934.

In 23 at bats in the Mid Summer Classics Ott had three singles, a double, a triple, two runs scored. His NL mates won 5 of the 11 contests he played in.

Shown here is an invitation to play in the 1935 All Star Game sent to Senators third baseman Ossie Bluege. Authored and signed by Hall of Fame AL president William Harridge, the correspondence is dated June 29, 1935, thirteen days before the game.

Ott received a similar invite from the NL chief Ford Frick.

Mel Ott left the game as one of baseball’s towering figures. When he retired in 1947, only 15 players owned more hits. Only Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx had launched more home runs. Just five men—Ruth, Foxx, Cap Anson, Lou Gehrig, and Ty Cobb—stood ahead of him in RBI. Only 18 players had collected more doubles. Only Ruth had drawn more walks.

Time eventually pushed Ott down those leaderboards. Among the stars who passed him stood Red Sox icon Carl Yastrzemski.

This lineup card from April 15, 1979, connects the two legends. On a Sunday afternoon, Yastrzemski delivered a productive performance. He went 1-for-2, drew three walks, cracked a double, and drove in two runs.

That lone hit carried Yaz to 2,876 career hits. The total lifted him into a tie with Ott for a spot among baseball’s top 25 hitters. Before the season ended, Yastrzemski joined the exclusive 3,000-hit club. He finished 1979 with 3,009 hits. His final career total reached 3,419, which placed him eighth in baseball history.

Ott retired with 1,708 walks, second only to the Bambino. Yaz’s three walks that afternoon pushed his total to 1,583, leaving him 125 behind Ott. From that April game forward, Yastrzemski kept climbing. By the time he retired, he had reached 1,845 walks, finishing 137 ahead of Ott.

The double carried equal weight. It marked the 540th two-base hit of his career, moving him past  Cooperstown’s Al Simmons and into a tie with Joe Medwick on the all-time list. Ott sat three spots behind them. Yastrzemski finished with 646 doubles, 158 more than Ott.

Ott still held the edge in power. The Giants slugger out-homered Yastrzemski 511 to 452. Meanwhile, those two RBI nudged Yaz higher on another leaderboard. The first tied Tris Speaker for 25th all-time. The second broke the tie and gave him 1,532 RBI. Yastrzemski closed his career with 1,844 RBI, good for 10th all-time and only 16 behind Ott.

The lineup card itself adds another layer of history. Red Sox manager Don Zimmer filled it out and signed it. He penciled Yastrzemski into the fifth spot behind  perennial All-Star Fred Lynn and Hall of Famer Jim Rice. Yastrzemski later signed the card and added a simple inscription: “HOF 89,” commemorating his 1989 Hall of Fame induction.

All of Harry Danning’s ten big league seasons were spent with the New York Giants as a teammate of Mel Ott. In this pair of handwritten letters, Danning offers his recollections of Ott.

“Mel Ott was one of the finest men that has been my privilege to meet and know in my lifetime — he was a great ball player.” In content worth reading, Danning goes on in both letters about what an outstanding person and player Ott was.

Danning was a four-time All Star, earning the honor each year from 1938 through 1941. In 1939, Danning was one of five Giants to hit a homer in the fourth inning to set a team mark. The following season Danning hit for the cycle in an unconventional way by hitting an inside-the-park homer. No player since has matched the feat.

After the ’42 campaign he enlisted into the US Army during the Second World War. Danning’s service caused him to miss all of ’43, ’44, and ’45 with the Giants. He never played again. For more on Danning, click here.