Favorite IP or TTM success

[KCLJ520]

Hey friends,

What is your favorite IP or TTM success? I know these are varied experiences, but both come with a thrill of having received a signature, so let me know: huge name or journeyman player, each can be fun!

 

[dadandsoncards]

2 come to mind off the top of my head. First Will Middlebrooks, guy is a class act. Saw him for my birthday at Single A in Salem, and knew he would make it when I first saw him. He threw me a foul ball during the game and signed it after. When he found out my wife and I drove 2 hours to the Salem Sox for my birthday he gave me his game used broken bat. Spoke to him for a few minutes. Nice kid. next is Gail Harris, wrote to him, and he sent me a picture and answered my questions about his career. Gail hit the last home run for the NY Giants. Come to find out I go to church with is sister. He came to visit last year and got a chance to sit and talk with him. Funny man with a 1000 stories. He signed a picture of him sliding into home covered by Yogi Berra. Be cool to get him to sign it too, but can't risk mailing it. He also signed a ball for me. I've met a few more and have over 1000 TTM but those are my favorite.

 

[KCLJ520]

That's awesome! Both great stories, thanks for sharing! Great players who are also great people make the hobby enjoyable! God Bless!

 

[SLNoble13]

Being a Red Sox fan I have the opportunity every year to catch their farm team Pawtucket come through Durham and I never miss them, attending at least 2 games from the series. Now Pawtucket has a history of not being a good signing team in person with many brushing you off. So one morning I was sitting at work and was looking at the roster for Pawtucket for the 2 games I would be going too just to double check if I needed to pack any other cards and I saw that Kevin Youkilis was being sent to Pawtucket for a couple of games beginning that afternoon. Since summer is not the busy season for my job I came up with a quick cough and cold and I didn't feel good and headed home. I picked up my stuff, dropped by Dick's Sporting Goods and picked up a ROMLB and headed to the park not knowing if Youkilis had arrived yet or not. When I arrived, there was one other guy outside waiting on Pawtucket. As guys started to show up I was beginning to worry I had missed Youk but then a cab pulled up and Youk got out. There was my favorite player of the Red Sox. He walked up, signed my ball and a card for the other guy and needed to run to get ready for the game. Later that night, my wife also got to meet him after the game as he signed for everyone (over 100 people) who were waiting for him and brushing off all of the other Pawtucket players who told him to hurry up. I wanted to yell to them that Youk was a clas act and that they should learn something from him!

 

[dbarbos1]

Living in Fort Myers, FL I try to see the Minnesota Twins during Spring Training. Joe Mauer is always one of the nicest guys, really the whole Minnesota Twins team are great guys. But Mauer will always try and stop for the kids, he is always taking pictures with people from Minnesota. As you can imagine, everyone wants a Mauer autograph, so he gets swarmed. Still he finds the time to talk to the fans, and sign for them.

 

[KCLJ520]

Those are both awesome stories, and cool to see a vet like Youk and a relatively younger player like Mauer treat their fans with respect. Everyone should take a lesson from this, athlete or not! Thanks for sharing!

 

[KCLJ520]

Any more great stories out there?

 

[HockeyBrawler]

Ryan Vandenbussche.

For those who don't know, I'm a big fan of the fighters in hockey. I have a collection of close to 200 DVD's of hockey fights, mostly from the mid 70's to today. In 2000, I picked up a Blackhawks jersey for cheap and that summer, had Vandenbussche 14 put on it.

Fast-forward to 2005. I was in college in Boston and the Pittsburgh Penguins (my favorite team) were practicing over at Northeastern University, so I followed the hounds out there, wearing my Vandy jersey. It was swamped because this was Crosby's first year and Lemieux's last year. Anyways, I was getting Shane Endicott to sign a card when I heard a voice behind me say "Hey buddy, want me to sign that for you?"

Vandenbussche was standing there, undoubtedly a bit shocked to see someone wearing his jersey. So I handed the pen over and asked if he could make it to Drew, and he did, signing "To Drew, All the Best, Ryan Vandenbussche 14." While signing I figured I'd take a chance and asked if I could have one of his sticks and he said "Yeah, definitely. Not right now since I need them out on the ice but I'll find you afterward." True to his word, as he came off the ice, he handed his stick up to me. I missed out on Crosby that trip, but whatever-- I got him eventually, got a jersey signed, a stick, and a photo signed by Mario Lemieux. You can't do much better than that.

 

[KCLJ520]

WOW, that is an AWESOME story! My wife took me to a Blues-Oilers game in STL for my 30th Birthday last year, and I fell in love with hockey, what a GREAT sport! Thanks for sharing, God Bless!

 

[The G]

I used to do a show in Toledo Ohio and got auto's from Dimaggio,Williams,Mantle,Mays Aaron,Gordie Howe and many more. The best one I ever got from that show was Muhammed Ali. He personalized my book when he wasn't supposed to and then did a magic trick for everybody. It was great. The best ttm has been Earl Campbell and Dick Butkus.

 

[KCLJ520]

Wow every big name ever!! Very cool story, and I did get a TTM return from Butkus several years back, he signed a Fighting Illini football Founders Day card, when the 50 greatest Illini were on the field at Memorial Stadium. I sent to him a few days after the game and got a very fast return.

Thanks for sharing, God Bless!

 

[dadandsoncards]

I know I have already responded to this thread once, but was thinking this weekend about this hobby of mine. A number of years ago, about 10, I was looking for something cool to give to my dad for Christmas. He and I loved baseball and baseball cards, and when he was a kid in the 50's of course his favorite team was the Yankee's, the team he got on the radio the most. At the time I lived in a small town in SW Virginia and one of the residents is Tracy Stallard. Mr. Stallard gave up 61 to Maris. I was friends with one of his friends he golfs with and he told me to go up to him and he would sign something for my dad. I got directions and Mr. Stallards rookie card and headed out to meet him. I was greeted at the door by a giant of a man. I believe he could still pitch at the time. (after baseball he worked in the coal mines here) I told him my story and he lead me through his house to his kitchen and said he had something better. He brought out he said his last poster of him on the mound with Maris in the background after the homerun. He signed it to my dad and the card and I left in amazement. When i presented the poster to my dad he was awestruck. He loved it. He had it professionaly framed and matted. It looks awesome. So a few years after, my dad had retired and was fighting cancer. He had esophageal cancer, not from smoking, or drinking but from acid reflux. (Get it checked and control it) I wanted to do something for him similar to what I had done before, and stumbled across this site. I found the TTM directory and gave it a shot unbeknown to my dad. I had all the successes delivered to him. I live 4 hours away. I was doing some owrk in Ocean Springs, MS for the company I work for and called my family each night to see how they were. The first words out of my dad mouth, were, "you won't believe who I got a letter from today". I said who, and he actually had 4 successes of my first batch I had ever mailed out. Mr. Stan Musial, Bobby Doerr, Bob Friend, and Yankee Bobby Shantz. He was floored. I let him on the secret and continued to write letters and he getting the returns. It kept him busy and his spirits up during his battle. I lost my dad 3 years ago come January, but I still write and amassed a pretty big collection, but those first few will be the ones I will treasure the most. Happy collecting.

 

[DaNotoriousNIC]

As a kid I use to send to basketball players a bit. Mostly all preprint since I mainly sent to the stars and don't really remember if I even sent SASE's even. I got back Brian Hill though probably in 95 and was thrilled. Sent me a personalized 8x10, few different magazines, team photo and other Magic goodies. I thought so much of that just purely because it cost them like $7 or something to send to me and I really thought he must have loved my letter. Because of the fact I barely got anything back that wasn't a preprint I quit.

Now its 2002 and I started sending out and keeping track of when I sent them and even marked them down when I got them back. I had big plans to send to so many football guys during training camp...well one would think I would have kept going I was 17/26. The one's I got back and was mostly excited for was David Sloan and to this day the most valuable Lion for over a decade now, Jason Hanson. I did get one return I wasn't that happy with at all which I glad I didn't go and do anything stupid like throw it away now. I got back my card unsigned and a signed Bible football card from Kurt Warner. I couldn't believe he just sent that but just couldn't find the time to quick sign my card I sent yet had time to put that in a envelope and return it.

So now its late 2007 and I happened to find that old list I started on our computer from 2002 and figured I'd send out to some guys and started looking on the internet to see if anyone had a website that sent to athletes. Well I found a few and it gave me some ideas but I still was sending to guys that I didn't know if they signed or anything. One of those first few I was very happy with was former Detroit Red Wing Bill Hogaboam. I did all the research, found him in Canada and gave him a shot with a $1 US bill for return shipping and got him back. After that I found this site and SCN and increased my odds greatly obviously. I'll list the returns I got by year I can remember being quite excited to open up. 2008 I sent out a ton of stuff so I could list quite a few more but won't.
2008
Sparky Anderson, Wade Boggs, Curtis Granderson, Ryan Zimmerman, CC Sabathia, Al Kaline (no fee), Henrik Zetterberg, David Robinson
2009
Josh Hamilton, Yao Ming, Jim Thome, Cliff Lee
2010
Ozzy Osbourne, Johnny Damon, David Wright, Matt Cain
2011
Craig Horner (Legend of the Seeker 1.5 yr wait), Peyton Manning, Mark McGwire,
2012
Vincent Lecavalier, nothing to shocking or excited this year so far but still have a little bit to go

As you can tell I have the night off and my fiancee is at work lol

 

[KCLJ520]

Dadandson: AWESOME story, really touching, and very cool to see how you and your Dad enjoyed the sport and hobby together. We will pray for the repose of his soul and for your family, sorry to hear of your loss. Great idea to send things to his home, I have done that for a few friends, but never for my Dad, that is a very cool idea. Thanks for sharing your great story!

NIC: Thanks for sharing your great successes, and also for telling about your time as a kid collecting, I always enjoy thinking back to when I got started in the hobby, it was 1985 and as a young boy growing up outside of Chicago, the White Sox, Cubs, and Bears were the greatest to me! Now my wife and I live in the STL area, and we LOVE the Cardinals (they have given us a lot more to cheer for in recent years!)

Thanks guys for sharing your awesome stories, keep these coming, I know I am not the only one who really enjoys reading these!! God Bless!

 

[KCLJ520]

Any other great stories? Fun to read them!

 

[Benson]

I like all of my Pat Neshek autos, I'm up to about 50, with most of them customs and I've made a set for him most of the time to keep. Met him in the minors and when he came through Baltimore his rookie season with the Twins. My favorite of all-time is probably Kirby Puckett, who I got shortly after he retired and was working for the Twins.

In the last 7 years or so, I've only asked two people to personalize a card for my son, who is now 11, John Wooden and Bobby Thomson.

 

[KCLJ520]

Very cool, I have heard a lot of players enjoy the customs, something different and one of a kind! Thanks for sharing, God Bless!

 

[PogoCards]

Not sports related, but I received customs back signed of Robert Redford a couple of days ago. I made two 8X10 custom collages, of sorts, including photos from my favorite movies of his and sent them to him and he signed both. Has been one of my favorite actors of all time. That is probably the best return, for me, that I have received since I have been sending requests TTM, celebrities or sports. I was happy to get them back signed.


Barry Urbanek - PogoCards






*

 

[KCLJ520]

Awesome, congrats! Always exciting to get a big name back in any field, very cool! God bless!

 

[mlbfan85]

i grew up and started collecting when i was like 9 or 10 i went to a library program and this is what sparked my interest in collecting. Fast foward to last year i started doing TTM after getting back into the hobby. I sent out to quick signers and several other big names and most didnt get back because of the big names but got the quick signers. I am a big fan of catchers so when i saw some people got Yogi berra so i figured i would give it a try and got two Index cards back signed for me and my son. i was so stoaked. My favorite in person was Len Barker he came up to my son and signed his giant baseball and the sleve of my jersey it was awsome and hope that memory sparks the love of the hobby in my son