TTM Success - Ken Hill

There are a lot of times where I talk about cards that have been sitting in my "to be TTMed" box for a long time.  For whatever reason, they sit.  One of which is when a player charges for their signature.  I rarely have cash on me, so that is a reason why I wait to send to players who charge fees.  One such player who's cards sat for a long time was former pitcher, Ken Hill.  I would pass his cards many times, and continue to wait to send them.  Finally, one day, I decided to go ahead and get the cards out of the box and into the mail.  It helped that I had found $10 lying on the ground as I was walking laps around the office building one morning.

The above 1990 Toys R Us card was one that I definitely wanted to add to the autograph album.  When I made the decision to send to Hill, this one was the first card I put into the envelope.

Of all of the other Hill cards that I had, I chose these four to round out the shipment.  Clockwise from top left are a 1995 Upper Deck Collectors Choice SE, 1996 Topps, 1995 Score Summit and a 1997 Topps Finest Hurlers.  I believe Hill's may be the first 1995 Score Summit in the album.  That is a very sharp-looking card, and turned out very nicely once signed.

Hill (b. 1965) played in the majors from 1988 to 2001 for the Cardinals, Expos, Indians, Rangers, Angels, White Sox and Devil Rays.  He had a record of 117-109 with 1,181 strike outs and a 4.06 ERA.  He was an All Star in 1994 when he led the NL in wins (16) prior to the strike ending the season.  He finished second that year in the NL Cy Young race to Greg Maddux.  He finished 12th in the NL MVP voting that season.

I mailed to Hill on November 23 and got the cards back on December 17, for a 24-day TAT.  I paid his fee of $3/card.