Another TTM Success From Jim Gott

This TTM success from Jim Gott was another one of those TTM efforts to thin out a player's cards from my boxes.  I had been gathering Gott's cards again for some time and finally pulled the trigger on getting them in the mail.  The above 1988 Donruss Baseball's Best was the card that pushed me to send to Gott again. These are really nice cards; those orange and black borders New great.

I also got a 1994 Fleer Ultra, 1994 Donruss, 1993 Fleer and 1993 Score signed by Gott.  It's funny how similar the Fleer and Score cards are.

I mailed to Gott on January 8 and got the cards back on February 6, for a 29-day TAT. 

Another TTM Success From Chris Hoiles

Another TTM success from former Oriole, Chris Hoiles came in recently that put some really nice cards into my album. The above 1994 Fleer Ultra All Star card is a great looking card.

I also got a 1998 Topps, 1995 Upper Deck SP and a 1997 Score foil signed.  The SP has the one-off gray Orioles hat that they wore for only one season.  I had one of them then, but it is somewhere at my parents house.  I'd like to find it some day.

I mailed to Hoiles on October 24 and got the cards back on January 8, for a 76-day TAT.

TTM Success - Bill Wertz

Here is another card that came out of the box of cards that my aunt gave me.  This is a 1994 Fleer Ultra of Bill Wertz, and it is a pretty sharp card.  I've said it before, but 94 Ultra is a very clean set, and looks great when signed.

Wertz (b. 1967) played in the majors from 1993 to 1994 for the Indians.  He had a record of 2-3 with 54 strike outs and a 4.08 ERA.

I mailed to Wertz on October 27 and got the card back on January 7, for a 72-day TAT.

TTM Success - Mike Ignasiak

A couple posts ago, I mentioned how 1993 Fleer Ultra was an underrated set.  Another underrated set came from the same group, just a year later, 1994 Fleer Ultra.  This was another simple set, albeit very nice with a full-bleed photo and minimal border.  These are super glossed, again, and heavy on the foil, but they are very sharp-looking cards.  I got this one back signed by Mike Ignasiak via TTM.  The card came from the huge lot that my aunt gave me a few months ago.

Ignasiak (b. 1966) played in the majors in 1991 and from 1993 to 1995 for the Brewers.  He had a record of 10-4 with 88 strike outs and a 4.80 ERA.

I mailed to Ignasiak on October 26 and got the card back on November 18, for a 23-day TAT.

TTM Success - Joe Rosselli

Yeah, 1995 Fleer gets a bad rap.  It is the freakiest set out there, and it gives you a headache for sure.  Still, I'm a big fan of getting the cards signed.  There's just something about how they look when signed.  I got the above 1995 Fleer signed TTM by Joe Rosselli recently.  This was the card that made me look him up to see if he signed, and it sat in my box for a long time while I built a request around it.  I somehow accumulated other Rosselli cards without even trying, really, and finally sent them out.

I got Rosselli's 1992 Classic Best, 1993 CLassic Best, 1993 Bowman and 1994 Fleer Ultra signed, as well.

Rosselli (b. 1972) played in the majors in 1995 for the Giants.  He went 2-1 with 7 strike outs and a 8.70 ERA.

I mailed to Rosselli on August 12 and got the cards back on September 12, for a 31-day TAT.

TTM Success - Matt Williams

This was a TTM request that I had high hopes for, and I ended up with a nice success.  The autographs from Matt Williams didn't turn out like I had hoped, but the cards are still signed, and they have moved from being buried in my TTM box to my autograph album.  I can't complain a whole lot about that.  This 1996 Pinnacle Essence of the Game is an acetate card, and it looks a lot better in person.  I had prepped the card, but I think Williams used an old Sharpie on it.

This 1994 Fleer Ultra Homerun King card also looks a lot better in person.  I had this card floating around several piles of cards in my office/card room.  It seemed to be jumping out at me every time that I looked through cards, so I finally put it aside in my TTM box and ended up including it with my TTM request.  I am actually really happy to see this one make its way into my autograph album.

Williams (b. 1965) played in the majors from 1987 to 2003 for the Giants, Indians and Diamondbacks.  He had 1,878 hits, 378 home runs and a .268 batting average.  He was an All Star five times (1990, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1999).  He led the NL in home runs in the strike-shortened 1994 season with 43 homers.  He was a four-time gold glover and a four-time silver slugger.  His best MVP finish was 2nd (NL), in 1994 (to Jeff Bagwell).  He won the World Series in 2001 with the Diamondbacks.  Williams appeared on the 2009 Hall of Fame ballot, but only received 1.3% of the vote.

I mailed to Williams on February 15 via A's Spring Training and got the cards back on February 25, for a 10-day TAT.

On a personal note, Williams was a huge name in our house back in the 90s.  My older brother, Philip, was a huge Giants fan.  He loved Will Clark and Matt Williams.  Maybe Philip will send some cards off on his own and get back a few autos.  Maybe?

TTM Success - Steve Reed

This TTM success from Steve Reed was really cool because of something I will point out in a bit.  I had a bunch of his cards, and I was happy to see that he signed everything that I sent.  He has a really nice signature, as well.

What I found funny was that when I put all of the cards beside each other, I was able to create a pitching sequence showing Reed's delivery.  This was actually really cool.  Add in the 1993 Donruss above, and it enhances it even more.  I just thought that was something kind of cool that I was able to do using some 90s junk wax.

Finally, here is a 1994 Score.  This set was really nice when it came out, and still looks good.  Like all mid-90s cards, the over-gloss kills it now.  The gloss gets hot and will stick to the other cards and will sometimes create a brick of useless cardboard.  I have had to throw out a bunch of mid-90s stuff because of this.

Reed (b. 1965) played in the majors from 1992 to 2005 for the Giants, Rockies, Indians, Braves, Padres, Mets and Orioles.  He had a career record of 49-44 with 630 strike outs and a 3.63 ERA.

I mailed to Reed on March 26 and got the cards back on April 10, for a 15-day TAT.

TTM Success - Juan Gonzalez

I got a great TTM success in today from a baseball star that I paid a lot of attention to when I was growing up.  Being a baseball fan in the 90s, you knew who Juan Gonzalez was.  He was one of the biggest stars of the decade and when I saw that he was signing TTM, I jumped all over it.  I went through all of my card boxes and pulled out a huge stack of his cards.  I then culled them down to just 5 that I thought would look cool signed and/or ones I would have liked to have seen in my auto album.

This 1995 Studio Gold card was the #1 card that I wanted to get signed.  I didn't have any in my auto album yet, and this was one of my favorite sets from back then.  The concept was pretty cool, and still looks pretty good today.  The card turned out great signed; I couldn't have asked for it to have turned out better.

This 1996 Score Select turned out really nice, as well.  This was a premium product back then, and I actually had forgotten about it until I found this in one of my boxes.  The wood grain design always looks good on a card, so I think that is what pushed it to the front of the line of cards that I picked.

I had a bunch of the 1998 Topps Interleague Play cards, and I thought it looked pretty cool.  The 1994 Fleer Ultra is especially cool with the American FLag background, but if you look closer, it has the 1993 All Star Game logo when the game was played at Camden Yards.  I had to add that to the TTM request for that purpose alone!

Finally, while looking through the boxes, I found this 1990 Topps Gonzalez rookie.  I figured that would top everything off, so I added it to the pile.  I was tempted to add a sixth card, but in the end, I relented since I didn't want to push my luck.  I am really happy with how everything turned out.

Gonzalez (b. 1969) played in the majors from 1989 to 2005 for the Rangers, Tigers, Indians and Royals.  He had 1,936 hits, 434 home runs and a .295 career batting average.  He was a 3-time All Star and 6-time Silver Slugger Award winner.  He was the AL MVP twice (1996 and 1998).  He hit 40 or more home runs five times.  He batted .310 or better five times as well.  He appeared on two Hall of Fame ballots (2011 and 2012) but only received as much as 5.2% of the vote before receiving 4.0% that dropped him off of the ballot in 2012.

Gonzalez on paper looks like a sure-fire Hall of Famer, but being mentioned in the 2005 Mitchell Report and also Jose Canseco's book as a steroid user.  This is the reason why he barely got a sniff of any Hall of Fame votes.  I doubt he ever gets in, but if some of the other known users get in, maybe he will have a chance in the future.

I mailed to Gonzalez on September 26 and got the cards back today for an 11-day TAT.

TTM Success - Jack McDowell

I opened up my mailbox a few days ago and was happy to see one of my envelopes in there from a TTM.  I haven't gotten nearly as many as I had earlier in the year.  This, however, has been by design.  I have learned that TTMs are a great winter hobby that can keep me busy while waiting for the season to start.  I have sent out a few this past week, just to get a few things off of my desk.

This return from Jack McDowell has reignited my interest in TTMs, though, because the cards I got back all turned out great.  The top card from 1994 Fleer Ultra looks great, as does the above 1988 Topps Traded.  The below 1993 Flair is from one of my favorite brands to get signed.  Also, I really like the mid-to-late 1990s Fleer because of the matte finish.  Autos really show up nicely on those as well.

McDowell (b. 1966) played in the majors from 1987, 1988 and 1990 to 1999 for the White Sox, Yankees, Indians and Angels.  He had a career record of 127-87 with an ERA of 3.85 and 1,311 strike outs.  His best season was 1993 when he went 22-10 with a 3.37 ERA on his way to the Cy Young Award that season.  He also won 20 games in 1992 *and finished second in the Cy Young voting).  McDowell was also a three-time All Star.  He appeared on the 2005 Hall of Fame ballot and received 0.8% of the vote.

I mailed the four cards to McDowell on March 4 and got the cards back on September 24 for a 204-day TAT.