A Hall of Famer TTM success

[Here's the prequel to that custom cut autos post from last week.]

Bobby Doerr is the patron saint of through-the-mail autographs. The man is 97 years old and still a reliable signer. A Hall of Fame second baseman for the Red Sox, he's got a lot of fans out there. He's always been very generous with his time when it comes to signing autographs, no fee required.

In recent months, I've dipped my toe in the TTM waters with lesser-known minor leaguers. Now I figured I'd ease myself down into the shallow end by going after some bigger-name, yet dependable signers. Really what inspired me is I ended up with a Bobby Doerr card-- probably from a dime box I bought awhile back-- that just seemed to be screaming out for a signature. So I prepared a TTM with it and dropped it in the mail 9/14/15. Mr. Doerr lives just 2 or 3 hours south of me, incidentally, so that might shave a couple days off the return time.

Oh wow, I just realized Bobby Doerr fits in my Pads in the Hall minicollection! That's anybody who ever suited up for the Padres who ended up inducted in Cooperstown. Doerr played for the PCL Padres in 1936, the team's inaugural season, along with Ted Williams before the both of them ended up in Boston. Now this TTM request is even better because it's not just a random baseball great, but one that lines up with a main collecting focus of mine. Nice! I didn't realize I should have been collecting Bobby Doerr this whole time. Let's use this post to symbolically enshrine him! He's in the PCL wing of the Pads in the Hall imaginary building, along with Ted Williams and Tony Perez. Welcome, Bobby! Now I kinda want to try finding a card of him in a Padres uniform, or if there isn't one, perhaps at least find a photo and make a custom.

I actually already have a Bobby Doerr autograph. I bought a signed index card thrown in cheap with free combined shipping along with some other signed index cards I got from an eBay seller back when I was on a kick of taking such index cards and creating a sketch card "around" it. I made a few but then my enthusiasm for the idea waned, leaving me with a dozen or so cheap autographed index cards sitting around. I should revive that project (or think up a new idea) one of these days and do something with those index cards. Hey! Maybe I'll use that Doerr auto and make it into a custom Padres card somehow. (editor's note: yep, I did.)

Anyways, I'll admit that I'm excitedly drafting up this post on 9/14/15 while the request sits in my work's outgoing mail box. Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself and it ends up getting lost in the mail or something! Well, I'll save this draft here and revisit it once the return arrives.

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It returned 9/23! Nine days.. pretty good! Thank you, Mr. Doerr!

Ideally the signature would be a bit bigger and better placed, but again, the man is 97 years old! I think it's wonderful and will cherish this card always.

Awesome!

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Speaking of beloved old-timers, gotta pay my respects to Yogi Berra. What a great life he lived.

Love it when the refractor shine gives a "sunset" effect.