Custom TTM Success: Betty White!

I finally got my spring training TTM requests mailed out last week. I only did 3 of them, and those 3 guys have zero major league experience between them. Fingers crossed they successfully come back in the next week or two.

But on the opposite end of the spectrum, I got a return back from the legendary Betty White the other day!

Very cool.. even personalized to me! Hopefully it's really from her, not an assistant or something, but who knows/what can you do? (That's pretty smooth, clear penmanship for a 94 year old!)

But yeah, Betty White's a treasure, always great in whatever she does. Like many people, I think of her as a Golden Girl first and foremost, but she's done a lot more than just that show. Still going strong at her age, it's pretty incredible. She hosted Saturday Night Live a year or two ago and it was awesome.

When I saw she was a decent TTM signer (no fee required), I whipped up 3 different customs for her, figuring she could sign all 3 if she was in the mood, or at least hopefully sign the one she liked best. I sent the 3 together as an uncut sheet-- Sometimes with my custom TTM requests, I send them "uncut" style, as that's easier to send than cards, then I worry about finishing the cards if/when they come back. Since Betty didn't stay within the card border, I might just leave this "sheet" as is.

The other customs, all in the 1996 Leaf Signature style, included one with a picture from her younger days (Yes, Betty White was once young! Hard to believe!), and one from her guest appearance on The Simpsons.

I'd love to add to my Simpsons Autographs collection, so that was the one I probably most wanted her to sign, but I can't really complain that she went with the best known version of herself.

It sucks that the players from the softball team episode (featured in my Simpsons custom set, plug plug) all have terrible track records when it comes to autograph requests, with the exception of Wade Boggs who is awesome and makes a lot of money for sick kids in the process. I would love to get more of my Simpsons customs signed, and considered trying spring training requests to Mattingly and Scioscia, but from researching other collectors' attempts, it seems like you've got a 1% chance of success with them, so I didn't bother. Bummer.

But anyways, back to Betty. At 48 days, this was my slowest successful return yet (not complaining, just making note), but I'm still somewhat new to the Through The Mail world and have only sent out about 30 requests total.. stats which I know because I finally started a Google Docs spreadsheet to keep track of such things, similar to what most serious TTMers use. I believe this is also my first unprompted personalization, though Alan Young personalized when I asked him to.

Big thanks to Betty White for taking a moment out of her day for me, and thanks to you for reading.