A Wale of a Tale (guest post!)

I'm excited to present a guest post by friend o' the blog Alex T. today. Alex is a good guy I've become familiar with over the past few years, working on a few different custom card projects with him. He's full of terrific cardboard stories and insights. I've suggested he start his own blog, but failing that, he's got a standing invitation to guest-blog here at Baseball Card Breakdown any time he's got a neat story he feels like sharing with the cardsphere. And this is an epic one that's been in the works for a while.


A Wale of a Tale

The Cassette

(Just bear with me please…I promise that this story is actually about baseball cards!)

To the best of my recollection, it wasn’t until 2003 that I gave into the reality that cassettes (those weird things that you used to pop into ultra-cool boomboxes and Walkmans) were about to fully go the way of the dinosaurs.

I held out as long as I could, but I knew that if I intended to continue building my music collection, I had no choice but to join the ranks of music lovers who could magically pop in a disc and skip past tracks with a single, painless click of the fast-forward button.

It didn’t take long for me to be completely won over (and buying my first ipod absolutely factored into making the transition much easier) and I soon was on a mission to try and replace every single one of my thousands of cassettes.

As each cassette was replaced by a new and (much, much, much) improved twin, I still struggled with the idea of parting with any of them. But living in a small 1BR apartment, it quickly became a harsh reality that I had no room to house two duplicate music collections – one of which was doing nothing but gathering dust.

Nearly all of my cassettes ended up being donated, but there were a scant few that I decided to keep for sentimental reasons. And, much to my surprise, one title that I couldn’t convince myself to let go of was Big Lizard In My Backyard by The Dead Milkmen.

I was far from being a diehard fan, but, whether they liked it or not, the Milkmen were forever endeared to me because of a light-hitting former major leaguer who probably gained more notoriety for his Milkmen fandom than for anything he accomplished during his time on the diamond.

Jim Walewander.

More times than I can count, I removed the cassette from the small “keeper” box with the intention of tossing it…but it always ended back from whence it came. And each time it went back, I was struck by how bizarre it was that I was holding onto it because it truly had no actual tie to Walewander.

I can’t recall the exact year (thinking 2005 or 2006), I happened to come across Jim's address on a site dedicated to TTM autograph requests and that made me decide once and for all that the only way I was keeping this cassette would be if it was directly associated with Jim.

A few weeks later, I opened my mailbox and found an SASE that had this stashed inside:

Now that the Big Lizard toss-it-or-keep-it dilemma was finally put to rest, I couldn’t imagine that I would ever bug Jim with another autograph request.

Oh how wrong I was.

Junk Wax Treasure

In late 2018, I was going through a couple monster boxes from my prime collecting years that had been stashed away since 1992.

As expected, the boxes were packed with about 99% very-late-80s/very-early-90s singles and it was few and far between when I would come across something that caught my attention.

But about midway through the second box, I hit a run of close to 100 cards of a one-career-home-run-Dead-Milkmen-loving Detroit Tigers infielder.

Much like my reaction to keeping the Big Lizard cassette, I found myself asking “Why would I need to keep all of these?”

And, just like before, I failed at coming up with a valid reason…but still found myself placing each and every one of these 1988 Topps, 1988 Score, 1989 Topps, 1989 Donruss, 1989 Fleer, 1989 Score and 1989 Upper Deck cards into a Keeper stack on my desk.

And for months that stack sat basically untouched.

My odd little treasure trove of Jim Walewander goodness.

Minor Customizations

It was somewhat interesting timing in stumbling across this bounty of singles because I had been working out a trade with Gavin for a few custom cards – three of which happened to be of Walewander.

I had seen recent posts stating that Jim had included copies of his own custom cards when returning TTM requests and that planted a seed in my brain.

Jim began playing professionally in 1983, but didn’t appear on his first card until 1986 (Glens Falls). I’m a huge minor league collector, so I asked Gavin if he could create cards for 1983, 1984 and 1985…but I wanted the fronts to only have the design, no photos. My thought was to ask Jim if he would add his artwork to each.

So I was already planning to send the customs when I found the massive stack of his MLB cards. But I had absolutely no thought whatsoever of including even a single one of them.

So kinda odd/funny/ridiculous that roughly half of them ended up going in the envelope.

Blame The Frame

December 24th: Gavin’s cards arrived

December 25th: My brother gave me a frame that displays 50 cards.

It was a cool gift, but my initial thought was that it might not be very practical.

I don’t really have a desire to display much of my collection and since I also focus primarily on minor league team sets, I just couldn’t picture putting any of my cards into the frame.

So the frame was placed into the storage area of the basement and my hope was that  I might eventually figure out how to put it to use.

But I wasn’t overly optimistic that was going to happen anytime soon.

A few weeks later I sat down to prepare the TTM to Jim. As I was writing the letter, I kept looking up at the stack of his cards in the corner of my desk.

And then for some odd reason I also started thinking about the frame.

And then this insane idea hit me.

I tossed the letter and started a new one.

I told Jim about sending the Big Lizard cassette cover years ago and gave him the rundown about the three custom minor league cards, all the singles that I just found as well as telling him about the frame. (And, yes, the letter was much shorter than this blog entry.)

My first ask was if he would be willing to do the images on each of the custom cards - and I wasn't thinking that would be too intrusive.

But then came the doozie.

I told him that my favorite Dead Milkmen song was Dean's Dream (the track is short - just 1:48 total) and asked "If I send you 50 singles along with a sheet that has the lyrics for Dean's Dream broken down to 50 lines, any chance you would write one line on the front of each card and also sign the backs?"

Crazy. Stupid. Ridiculous.

No way he’s going to agree to that. And I was honestly thinking it would be a miracle if I even heard back from him.

Within a week, I had a response telling me to send everything.

The Waiting Game

So on January 29th  (2019 mind you) I packaged up the cards and mailed them off - and I included a prepaid return envelope that had a tracking number. My package made it to Jim a few days later and I conservatively estimated that it would take him a few weeks to complete this request.

7 days passed and I figured I'd check the return tracking number just to see - and, as expected, no activity.

14 days...no activity.

A month...no activity.

2 months...no activity.

3 months...no activity.

3 months + 1 day…I gave up.

I mentioned to Jim in my original letter that I had zero expectation that he would agree to do this and even told him that I'd be more than willing to pay. But his reply simply said he was willing to do it.

I figured that there must have been some confusion with my ask and that it did end up being a bit too much. While I was disappointed, I realized that it had always been a shot in dark that Jim would accommodate this crazy request, but I was at least glad that I tried.

I mean, come on, would he really spend time writing lyrics and signing 50 cards?

Would he???

Yes. He. Would.

With many of my ebay purchases being team sets, it’s not uncommon to open the mailbox and see a padded envelope. And with the evening schedule at home typically being pretty hectic, I usually put the mail on the desk and go through it after my kids are asleep.

So when I finally had a chance to sit down and look at the stack of mail on the night of November 6th, I was shocked to see an envelope that had my handwriting on it.

As soon as my brain processed what I was holding, the first words going through my head were, "HOLY SHIT!"

I ripped the envelope open and can’t even begin to describe how awesome it was to see these cards.

As I looked at the scattered mess of cards, something immediately jumped out at me. I only sent Jim MLB cards but I was seeing lots of minor league singles along with quite a few custom cards.

I quickly got all the cards in order and as I slowly went through the stack, I realized that Jim sent me as many unique individual cards as he could!

As much as I thought that Jim ended up not being on board with my autograph request, seeing that he went out of his way to try and provide me with so many different singles...man...I was standing there realizing that he apparently was all in.

Jim also took the time to complete each of the three custom minor league cards - he glued pics of himself with Lakeland (1984) and Birmingham (1985) while the Bristol card (1983) was turned into a one of kind piece of abstract cardboard art.

While I hadn't intended for these to be part of the project, each of them featured a lyric on the customized front and I found that they were a perfect addition.

Please Sir, Can I Have Another NINE Autographs?

When this idea first hit me, my thought was that if it came to fruition, I’d end up with a frame that displayed multiple copies of each of Jim’s MLB cards.

And I thought that would pretty freaking cool.

But then Jim was kind enough to take matters into his own hands and the Dean’s Dream frame actually featured 28 different cards.

And I thought that was beyond freaking cool.

But then at some point the completist collector inside my head came up with this annoying idea that the project was ever so close to going from “freaking cool” to “freaking epic.”

And I thought…Jim Walewander is going to freaking hate me.

But having Jim curse my name didn’t keep me from researching to find that if I tracked down a mere nine singles, the Dean’s Dream frame could end up including a copy of every card that he appeared on.

Thanks to ebay, Gavin and Sportlots, I had those cards in hand a few weeks ago.

(One of the cards is from Jim’s stint with the Columbus Clippers and it’s part of a foldout sheet that was most likely handed out during the 1990 season. While I do have the sheet in my collection, it’s pretty rare and I couldn’t bring myself to perforate the cards. So Gavin was kind enough to whip up a “reprint” copy.)

I sent a long overdue letter to Jim thanking him for his kindness in not just obliging my off-the-wall request but for including all those different cards.

I told him that his generosity took this crazy request to a level I hadn’t expected – and his including so many unique singles made me wonder if it might somehow be possible to have all of his cards showcased.

So, as sheepishly as I could in writing, I asked if he would mind me sending him the final nine.

I included an already autographed copy of his 1988 Topps card – Jim added this when he signed the Big Lizard cover and he customized it by adorning himself with an arrow through the head and a pair of hipster sunglasses.

Since every card in this project is signed on the back, I thought it might be nice to have a single card where you can actually see his autograph. It just so happened that Jim wrote the final lyric (to see a girl) on a 1988 Topps card, so I asked if he would mind rewriting the lyric on this one.

It didn’t take long before I found this waiting in the mailbox:

The Dream is Over

As I mentioned earlier, my original Dean’s Dream request to Jim was sent January 29, 2019.

And, after 590 days, the project officially came to end on September 10, 2020 when these arrived:

The only “bad” thing was that Jim didn’t sign the back of each. But…umm…yeah…I think I’m gonna let him slide!

(And for those of you paying close attention, yes, those are 1988 Score & Topps and 1989 Fleer & Topps cards. However, they are the glossy versions.

Interesting note: I used an eraser on the fronts of those four cards because I recalled how the glossy surface didn’t always do well with Sharpies. If you look closely, Jim actually used a thick Sharpie on those, compared to the thinner point ink on the others. Just made me wonder if he noticed that those were the glossy cards – I would think most players wouldn’t know/care – and he realized that it might be better to go with a wider pen.)

And because Jim is a freaking awesome human being who is ridiculously generous with his fans, I shouldn’t have been shocked to find something extra stashed in the envelope.

Jim has created five different customs of himself – which he had included one of each in the original stack

The top three have blank backs, but the backs of the bottom two had some odd drawings.

Desk Dude is the back of the 89 Fleer and Shadow People is the back of the 88 Score.

Those obviously stood out, but I really didn’t think much about it - figured he had been using whatever paper was available when he printed these up and some of the sheets happened to have images on them.

Yeah, not so much.

After getting the nine singles out, I realized that there was still something in the envelope.

I reached in and felt what I thought was an oversized card…and pulled it out to find

An “uncut sheet” of Jim Walewander custom Score rookie cards.

And, to borrow a line from earlier, I thought that was beyond freaking cool.

But then I flipped it over

Never would I have imagined that deciding to hold onto a worthless, random cassette back in 2003 would eventually lead to me having a frame with, what I think, are 50 pretty damn unique autographed cards of one of my favorite baseball players.

Never did I think that my collection would include a copy (and, yes it’s a copy, not an original) of a Jim Walewander piece of art on the back of a sheet of Jim Walewander baseball card art.

And never did I realize just how right that stubborn, completist collector in my head was about how this entire project would turn out if I just took a chance and sent those final nine cards…

Freaking epic.

Custom TTM come full circle

Here's another recent TTM success (I'm 2 for 2 on TTM attempts so far in 2020!) Most of this post was drafted a week or so ago, but I delayed publishing it so as to not spoil the surprise for a fellow blogger. And it's good I've got this post ready, because the new puppy has been exhausting! Oh man.. baseball card stuff will be on the backburner for a while thanks to this tiny hellbeast who needs A LOT of attention and training. Ugh, I'm gettin' too old for this shit.

I first started printing my own custom cards back in 2015, and the first TTM return I ever got on a card I made myself was on January 16, 2016 when Pat Neshek returned a request from me with his gloriously nutty signature gracing my printouts.

Four and a half years later I went back to that well for another round. I was really excited about this new custom template and figured I'd christen it with the living patron saint of through-the-mail autograph requests, St. Patrick Neshek.

It took 15 days for my earlier request to come back, and it took 15 days for this one, too. The man is consistent!

And this one! Love the photo from his All-Star Game introduction in 2014, even if his arm does get in the way of the autograph area a bit. Worth it.

This one has already been forwarded onto Fuji. I know he loves those 1999 UD Century Legends Epic Signatures autographs, plus his favorite team is the Oakland A's, so I thought he'd get a kick out of this. I think Fuji was my inspiration to make this custom template, so it's only fitting. If you're familiar with this design, you might've noticed that I gave it my own personal touch by adding the blue.

I sent Pat 4 customs.. one A's, one Phillies, and two Cardinals. He kept one of the Cardinals cards for himself, which was an honor for me. Though I was going to give that Cardinals dupe to Kerry.. so Kerry, Pat Neshek has your card. I'll leave it to you to retrieve it from him, lol, because I don't think I can give up the one I got.

Big thanks to Mr. Neshek for signing my customs!

Dog Day! (a Mad Dog and a Happy Dog)

Recent TTM success!

This custom card has a lot going for it for me to love. 1973 Topps is probably my favorite flagship set. And I love seldom-documented-on-cardboard "short-term stops" cards with the guy in an unfamiliar uniform like this. And Bill Madlock was among the few guys I got an in-person autograph from when I was a kid. Pretty sure it was at my first-ever card show, circa 1991 or 1992.. possibly the first autograph I ever got.

Tangent..
Ok, let me take a moment to try to think about the timeline of the 4 autographs I got in person as a kid.
Autograph #1 - Card show circa 1991. Must have been late '91 because I went with my mom and her boyfriend at the time. He bought a team bag of a dozen or so '80s Reggie Jackson cards that he later gave to me as a Christmas or birthday present-- which is why the show must've been later in the year.. a month or two later, I think. I want to say Bill Madlock was a guest signer and this is where I got his autograph (on a piece of paper). It was a big card show.. can't recall where, but perhaps the San Diego Convention Center? I remember it was huge and I was overwhelmed. Can't recall if I bought anything for myself that day (so if I did, must not have been anything too notable).. only remember the Reggies I was gifted later, with his '83 Diamond King visible on top.
Autograph #2 - Spring training in Yuma, March or April 1992.. I think. Need to check my photo albums to confirm I went to Arizona in '92. We caught one spring training baseball game on our way from San Diego to Tucson. Only signature I was able to get this day was an unknown old coach with the Indians who is still a mystery to me to this day, but maybe one day I'll crack it. I also saw Randy Jones and Robbie Beckett signing autographs, but didn't get to them.
Autograph #3 - '92 All-Star FanFest, July 1992. Googling tells me this event took place July 10-14, 1992 at the San Diego Convention Center. I think I went to this with my grampa. Don't remember much about it other than it being a lot of fun (and exhausting). I got Dick Allen's autograph on a baseball. For a while, I was thinking perhaps I got Dick Allen and Bill Madlock's autographs on the same day, but thinking about it more, if that were the case I would have most likely gotten Madlock's signature on the same baseball I was carrying around with me rather than a dumb piece of paper. (The fact that Dick Allen and Bill Madlock aren't exactly connected in any way probably wouldn't have bothered me.) So now I'm thinking Madlock was at the earlier card show.
Yeah, ok, I think that's the timeline. But maybe I'm wrong! Kinda wished I kept more of a diary/journal back then.
Oh, and Autograph #4 was Dan Walters at a card show sometime in the summer of '92, probably a few weeks after the All-Star Game. But wait a minute.. I just posted a couple months ago saying it was "The story of my first in-person autograph". This just shows how blurred my memory is of these events and anything I say about specifics of my original stint as an active card collector in 1990-1993 is to be taken with a grain of salt. LOL

But anyways, yes, Bill Madlock very well may have been the first autograph I ever got. One of the first, at least.

And as I say, 1973 Topps is probably my all-time favorite set, so I was happy to squeeze Madlock into the set via custom even though his first baseball card wasn't until a 4-player rookie in 1974 Topps, airbrushed into a Cubs cap. I get a kick out of seeing players I like in unfamiliar uniforms, so I get downright giddy seeing Bill Madlock as a Texas Ranger.. quite the rarity with only a couple '93 oddballs featuring him during his brief stint as a rookie in Arlington. I had years earlier made a similar custom, but then I found this other picture that I like a little more.

Mr. Madlock was asking a $15 fee for signing custom cards ($10 for real cards) via a limited-time offer on Twitter. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but his certified autographs can often be bought cheaper than that, so if I'm going to pay $15, it's gotta mean something to me. And I'm happy with my choice on the '73 Rangers custom here. Looks great!

I also printed out this 1986 Topps "box bottom" custom I made some weeks back, though ultimately decided against sending it to him to get signed. Perhaps if his fee was cheaper and/or my printer did a better job with it, I would have tried getting a signature on this one as well. But still a unique addition to the PC as-is.

And hey, we just brought another unique addition home today.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. There was plenty of nervous whining at first, but it's gotta be tough leaving her mama and siblings behind like that. She doesn't fully realize it yet, but she's won the puppy jackpot.. with a very fun life ahead of her of being spoiled with treats, adventures, and lots of love.

We're still finalizing a name, but looks like Ruby "Billie" Blue or some variation of that. She's about 8 weeks old. Probably a husky/lab mix, but we'll do a DNA test soon to get a better idea. Super sweet and playful. And pretty much everything she does is adorable. So yeah, it's nice to have a pup again!

UPDATE: A few more puppy pics.

TTM Success: Night Owl!

Here's a fun one that just came back.. I got noted cardblogger Night Owl's autograph on a real minor league card that features a photo he's in.

How cool is this? Got his signature plus a nice "night owl" inscription. Looks great! And as someone who's name also starts with G, it's interesting to me to check out how other people sign a capital G.

Night Owl referenced this card in a post earlier this year (and linked to an older post where he got more into it.):

"This is the card where I make my trading card debut. I'm the guy in the press box, fourth window from the left, talking to the scorekeeper in the fifth window." 

In the comments of that post, Jeremy asked him if he'd be cool with signing the card, and Greg replied in the affirmative. Sounded like a good idea to me, so I tracked down a copy of the card to send to him.

I don't need to slurp Greg too much here, as if you're reading my blog, you're no doubt already familiar with Night Owl Cards and likely recognize it as the GOAT of baseball card blogs, or at the very least a lock for inclusion on the hypothetical Mount Rushmore of the cardsphere.

I've mentioned before that his blog was my main inspiration for starting Baseball Card Breakdown back in 2013. And funny enough, he recently inspired me to start a new set-blog (kicking off next month). So yeah, he's been a guiding light for me as a blogger for a long time (not to mention a great trading partner) and it's very cool to have him included as a tangible part of my card collection now.

Here's the back of the card, if you were interested. Gotta love old school minor league cards.

Thanks a lot, Greg!
(And hey, coincidentally, it's the 11th blogiversary of Night Owl Cards today!)

I need to round up my other blogger cards and make this a full-fledged minicollection. I think I could at least fill a binder page at this point, perhaps two. Several bloggers make customs of themselves to throw in with card packages to trader buddies, and those are always fun to receive. I know it's not really Night Owl's style to do something like that, but the minor league stadium card is perfect.

Have a great weekend, guys!

Mr. Jones and Me. Custom TTM success with an awesome note!

Oh man, this was a sweeeet TTM return for me.

I can't really explain it, but I was nervous about this one. It was way back in January when Padrographs Rod hooked me up with the elusive mailing address.. and it took me until the middle of August to finally get around to making the request, though it was high on my to-do list that whole time.

Chris Jones has been an enigmatic figure in my collection for a while now, sort of my personal Moonlight Graham. He was only the second person from my high school to play in the major leagues. And the first (Mike Reinbach) passed away many years ago, so Mr. Jones is by default the reigning patriarch of the Guys From Granite fraternity. The fact that "Chris Jones" is a very common name only further clouds the enigmatic nature of the situation, as searching for his cards is not easy, and googling him is pretty much a waste of time as 99% of the results will be for the other baseball player named Chris Jones (who debuted with the Reds in 1991), or maybe the other few guys with that name who've played in the minors over the past few years (or the football or soccer players who also have that name).

I just wanted it to be perfect. You never know how a TTM request will be received.. especially when customs are involved. I've heard about some old-timers who are like, "This is a FAKE CARD! I wasn't paid for the use of my likeness with this! Grumble grumble!" Worst case scenario is upsetting the guy.

Another concern of mine was the weather. Yeah, seems funny, but my customs are susceptible to the ink running when they get a little damp. I figured mid August would be safe, but lol, the day before this return came in, it rained. Thankfully it was dry the day the mailman dropped the return envelope off for me.

But enough lead-in, let's get to it!

Boom, if I may say so myself. Chris never got a real MLB card, so I made my own using the only photo I've ever seen of him not in a minor league uniform. I colorized the b&w pic and put it in a 1987 Donruss design (which might look familiar if you read my post from last month about 87D customs).

I sent 4 copies of this custom, and in my note I asked for one signed in return and said he could keep the extras, which he did. (I also sent a fine-tip red Sharpie for him to sign with [and keep].. an advanced TTM move I've only done once before.. for when you really want it to turn out well and not risk a crappy ballpoint pen or dried-out Sharpie ruining your request). I also mentioned how we both went to Granite Hills High School, and then Grossmont CC and SDSU (I nearly asked him which elementary school he went to, curious if our scholastic paths mirror back that far, though I resisted, thinking it might be creepy to do so).. and mentioned how collecting cards of players who went to my high school is a way I connect with my hometown after moving away a decade ago.

I think the back turned out pretty good, too! I take pride in my custom backs, gotta admit. Helps me stand out from other custom card makers who don't bother with the backs. But really it's just my OCD on the matter, as a blank-backed card feels incomplete to me. This is not only a rated rookie (that never was) but also a sunset card with full career stats. Turns out Chris read it and gave me props in a great note he included in his return...

Transcribing for posterity, he says:

Hey Gavin
Thanks so much for the cards. You did your homework on the career highlights. I didn't even remember that Nolan R. was pitching the game of my debut. I do remember that being on the same team as he was my greatest memory in the ML. Such a great guy as well as HOF no brainer. Take care and thanks again.
Chris  --->
That picture was in spring training during an intersquad game on deck to face Vida Blue. Nice game face! I ended up punching out looking on a 3-2 slider. Nice!

Wow! I've received nice little notes with my custom TTM requests before (including from Vida Blue himself!) but this takes the cake. I couldn't have dreamt of a better reply. This epitomises the greatness of the hobby for me and what it's all about.

Chris even wrote "Go Eagles!" on the back on the return envelope, a reference to our shared Granite Hills heritage.

Oh man, I'm so very happy with this return! While I wouldn't expect it to have big value on the secondary market, this signed card is now easily in the inner circle of best cards in my collection, right up there with my Trout autos and vintage Mantles.

Again, huge thanks to Mr. Jones for making my day by taking the time to sign and return my card and write that wonderful return note. And big thanks also to Rod as well as Brian at ABC Unlimited, the autograph dealer who kindly supplied the address. Much appreciated!

TTM success from 99 and a look at my TTM tracker

We've recently rented some DVDs of the classic Get Smart tv show. I remember watching it in syndication as a kid in the 80s and I enjoy the show's charm, especially Agent 99, played by Barbara Feldon. While co-star Don Adams sadly passed some years back, thankfully Barbara is still with us. And she's a great through-the-mail signer. So I was inspired to whip up a custom card and send it to her along with a little note and a SASE.

But one thing about living in the Pacific Northwest is "the rainy season" lasts much of the year. And my customs are just printed on photo paper-- not from a professional print shop or anything-- so that means they're susceptible to smudging and smearing, especially if the envelope gets a little damp. So what I'm saying is it's a risk for me sending out custom TTM requests pretty much any time other than the summer.

As I could have anticipated, it was a very wet day yesterday when Ms. Feldon's return envelope arrived. But the damage wasn't as bad as I was fearing...

Sweet! A little smudging in the middle of the card and around the last name, but again, could have been worse. Took about 3 weeks from her home in NYC. The signature looks terrific and includes a little "99" inscription.. love it!

The back's not as clean as would be ideal, and looks like the card got a little warped, but nothing tragic. I suppose I could maybe send out another request come the summertime, hoping another card would make the journey closer to mint condition. But I'm not stressing it too much. Still very happy with the return.

Thank you for your time, Ms. Feldon!

This puts my TTMs for 2018 at 6 successes out of 7 attempts (the lone holdout is Mark McGwire whom I sent to in spring training after hearing about some successes the prior year). And I see from looking at my TTM tracker spreadsheet that it was exactly a year ago today that I tried sending a request to Sooz, the former blogger and current Topps employee. She thanked me in a Twitter message when she received the package (I included some bonus cards for her too) and said she'd sign and return soon, so it looked like my odds were good. But well, here we are a year later, still waiting. No response to the couple times I've tried to follow up. But maybe someday!

Anyways, I thought you guys might like sneaking a peek at my TTM tracker.

Accounting for over half the entries, you can see 2016 was the year I really caught the TTM bug, and then slowed down with just a handful of requests in '17 and '18. I meant to try some minor leaguers this year, but never got around to it. Maybe next year.

Anyways, thanks for swinging by!

Custom Simpsons TTM success: "Fat Tony" Joe Mantegna!

Added a new addition to my little group of Simpsons custom autos. I heard Joe Mantegna was a reliable signer, so I whipped up a Fat Tony card to ask him to sign.

Looks great! Came back in about 3 weeks. Joe took an extra moment to personalize it, which I appreciate.

I decided to "get cute" with my choice of 1981 Topps Football for the design.

It's the set that contains the rookie card for the similarly named Joe Montana (a card which I do not own, but maybe someday). I'm a dork and thought it'd be kinda funny to give a sly nod to Montana on the custom.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mantegna!

Custom TTM success: Karen Allen as Mrs. Smalls!

Earlier today, it was announced Karen Allen would have hobby-only autographed Sandlot inserts in 2018 Topps Archives (hobby boxes come out on October 24th). So I guess my "completed" auto set isn't quite finished after all.

Ironically.. on the very day of the announcement.. I get a TTM return in my mailbox from whom? Yep, Karen Allen!

I'm sure I'll track down a certified Archives auto soon enough, but it won't be able to hold a candle to a personalized auto, wishing me all the best, on a card I made.

This is my second TTM success from her. The first one took 380 days to come back (2016-2017). This one, less than a fortnight. Haha.. you just never know with through-the-mail requests.

Thank you so much, Ms. Allen! Means a lot to me!

Custom TTM success!: Art LaFleur (plus more Sandlot customs)

I've already told the neat story of Art LaFleur's wife stumbling upon my blog and asking me for copies of customs I made. They were happy with the few I sent, and Art asked if he could get some more, to stock up for fan requests. Took me a month or so, but I finally got around to finishing the bulk order of custom cards. And when I sent them, I couldn't resist whipping up yet another card for him to sign for me. He graciously did, and returned it along with a check to cover the quote for my cost for the customs.

Nice!! I know I said the previous card he signed for me was my favorite, but I think I've now got a new favorite right here!

This was my first time doing a couple "advanced" TTM moves. First of all, I sent along a red fine-tip Sharpie for him to use (and keep). I had a few extras, so figured I could sacrifice one, and I always appreciate red or green autos. The other thing is I asked if he could maybe inscribe it with his memorable line from The Sandlot, which he kindly did.

Thank you again, Mr. LaFleur!

I mentioned before that I was a little bummed that Topps didn't include any of the adults in the cast with their Sandlot inserts in 2018 Archives, and that I wanted to do my part to rectify that with some customs of my own.

Here's a non-auto Babe.

I come correct with full backs.

The lovely Karen Allen. It took over a year, but I got a TTM return from her back in Feb '17. Just sent out this one the other day. Hopefully it comes back signed in a year or so!

I don't think her character has a name other than "Mom" in the film, so she's Mrs. Smalls here. Though if she took Denis Leary's characters last name when they got married, she might not technically be Mrs. Smalls anymore. But let's not overthink it.

Does Denis Leary sign TTM? If anyone has a viable address for him, please let me know! Would love to get this signed.

I know James Earl Jones is retired from signing free autographs thanks to decades of Star Wars fans hounding him, so there's no chance of getting this custom signed. Maybe I'll do a "custom overlay" like the Darth Vader one I did for the auto card of his I bought.

Did you know that in the script the Mr. Mertle role was originally not a specified race? When the producers were able to land him for the part, Jones suggested the backstory of Mr. Mertle being a retired Negro League player, which was a perfect way to go with the character, giving an extra layer of depth.

Ok, here's an idea of what a James Earl Jones Sandlot "cut auto" might look like.

Thanks for swinging by!