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Seventy years ago - May 15, 1941, to be exact - Joe DiMaggio went 1-for-4 with a 1 and drove in a run.

It was likewise the day that the New York Yankees center fielder began his 56-game hit streak, a Major League Baseball mark that still stands.

But for Dave Harris of Jamestown and his brother, Bill, of Lakewood the appointment that they'll always remember from that season will now be April 7, 1941, five weeks before the Yankee Clipper began his attack on the book book.

That's the day their father, Wilbur, drafted a simple, typewritten letter to Yankees manager Joe McCarthy requesting autographs of 5 members of the 1941 Bronx Bombers, including DiMaggio.

Composed on S.M. Flickinger Co. letterhead, - Wilbur did institutional sales for the Jamestown-based wholesale grocer - the letter was found last week in a rubber at the base of Dave and Bill's mother, Ardath Harris, who passed by on Mother's Day.

"We were passing through the good to see if we could get a death certificate for dad (who died on May 2, 1979),'' Bill said.

What the brothers found among other personal items was the letter Wilbur sent to the Yankees' manager.

The letter, which remains in unusually good condition seven decades later, reads as follows:

Dear Mr. McCarthy:

On the eve of May 5th, the baseball fans of this city are giving a banquet welcoming its entrance into the Class D PONY League and honoring Greg Mulleavey of Buffalo, the new director of the Jamestown Falcons.

We wonder if you would be so kind as to ask four or five members of your team to mark their names at the seat of this letter in the space provided. It is our aim to superimpose these signatures around a good luck greeting, which will be victimized as favors at this affair.

We are peculiarly uneasy to deliver the autographs of Joe DiMaggio, Joe Gordon, Red Rolfe, Bill Dickey, and of course, your own. If possible, we, we would wish the autographs in black ink.

For your convenience, we are enclosing a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

You may be assured the fans of Jamestown will deeply appreciate your courtesy.

Best of circumstances for the 1941 season.

Yours very truly,

W.J. Harris

Sometime before May 5, 1941, Wilbur received the returned letter, complete with the requested autographs. Four of the Yankees - McCarthy, DiMaggio, Dickey and Gordon - were later enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

"It's typical of my dad,'' said Dave, a pharmaceutical representative. "I believe he still drew the lines (where the autographs were signed).''

"It's incredible,'' said Bill, who is a Chautauqua County parks supervisor.

Historical, too.

Not merely does the letter include the names of Yankee greats, but it also ties them to the 1st class of professional baseball in Municipal Stadium, which is now known as Diethrick Park.

Dave and Bill, who weren't even born when the letter was sent, figure their father's engagement with the 1941 Jamestown banquet was because of his rank in various community service organizations.

Once the letter had served its purpose - remember, the signatures were superimposed around a good luck greeting that was exploited as banquet favor - Wilbur tucked it out in a drawer where it stayed for 50 years.

"I think originally it was interred with lots of other stuff,'' Bill said. "I think going through it with Mom looking for a something else."

Ultimately, the letter was touched to the good at Ardath's Forest Avenue home. It wasn't found again until Dave and Bill discovered it last week.

That's when Chip Johnson, Dave's next-door neighbor and a Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame board member, was contacted and informed that the Harris family wanted to donate the missive to the CSHOF. The papers will ultimately hang prominently in the Hall, which is situated on West Third Street in downtown Jamestown.

"With our dad's pride in Jamestown," Bill said, "this is probably done more in his honor. Mom wanted to do it 10 days ago.

"I suppose it will be keen to see it framed there."

Randy Anderson, CSHOF vice president, agrees.

"We're absolutely thrilled to find such a valuable document which we can show for all the citizens and sports fans of Chautauqua County to enjoy forever,'' Anderson said. "It's one of the most valuable items in our collection. I'm just thrilled that the Harris boys thought enough of the act of the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Renown to hold this donation."

Noted Bill: "Dad would only know it."