A couple of decades ago, maybe a month after having published a comment piece on Vin Scully (spoiler alert: I liked him), I was going through the letters to the sports editor at the San Bernardino Sun.

It didn’t take long, I’m sure. We never got many letters … and that was back when some humans actually did sit down with paper and pen, and put down handwritten words … then fold the paper and place it inside an envelope, apply a stamp on the upper-right corner of the side with the address on it … and drop it in a mailbox.

Then I got to a letter that sent a bolt of fear through my brain.

It was a letter with Vin Scully’s name on the return-address portion of the envelope.

When readers reach out to make contact with a writer, it is likely that the author of the letter is angry about something.

People who are happy with a journalist, they perhaps think about sending a note … but they rarely do.

About 90 percent of all correspondence a journalist gets is from unhappy readers. Anger is a greater motivator than is happiness. To make up a stat I believe is close to accurate … let’s say 90 percent of all comments addressed to a journalist are some blend of ticked/aggrieved/scornful/corrective.

My next thought was: Did I get something wrong in the Vin Scully column? Did I write something that offended him?

And getting an angry letter from Scully would be terrible … like being savaged by your mother. Almost too much to bear.

I imagine I let out a sigh as I forced myself to break the seal and pull out the one-page note.

I probably stared off into space, maybe pondering over whether I should let someone else read the letter … and then have that person give me a sanitized version of it.

Finally, I decided to read it myself, and I was surprised — but should not have been — and then quite pleased that Scully had sent along a thank-you note for treating him well in the piece I had written.

I’m sure it looked and read rather like the thank-you note an ESPN reporter got from Scully, and you can see that note on the ESPN website, about one-third of the way through the long “voices” piece celebrating Scully, 88, and the looming end of his 67-year broadcast career with the Dodgers.

Imagine it written by Scully using a blue fountain pen on beige paper, with “Vin Scully” printed at the top of the page. That is what mine looked like, right down to the “thoughtful reader” part of the note.

To save you from hunting through the online piece, I will type the Scully-to-ESPN-writer note here:

“Dear xxxx

“A thoughtful reader sent me a copy of your more than generous column for which I am deeply grateful.

“I have been extremely fortunate to do what I love to do and my only feeling is one of deep gratitude.

“Sincerely,

“Vin”

Isn’t that nice?

And what a relief it was!

I like to think I kept the thank-you note that Vin Scully sent me. I’m sure I did. But after so many moves over the past 10 years, I must concede there is a chance I mislaid my letter from Vinny … which I would deeply regret.

So, yes, Vin Scully sends handwritten-with-blue-fountain-pen thank-you notes.

Of course he does.