TTM Failure - Marvin Miller

Normally, I write about all of the TTM successes I have, but sometimes, there is a failure or two mixed in.  Today, was a failure.  I received my mailer back from Marvin Miller, whom I had really wanted to get an autograph of, but inside my mailer was my ball (which was blank) and this note.

Part of me wants to write a note to Mr. Miller, include this note and see about getting the pre-approval for the autograph.  Another part of me wants to say heck with it and go after someone else.

I understand what he is getting at with the note and the Ebay comment.  I have seen too many times where people abuse the privilege of TTM by sending 4, 5, 6 cards to someone instead of requesting only one autograph for themselves.  All the time on sportscard forum there are people who talk about sending 6 cards at a time and complain when only one comes back signed.


Of course, I just did an Ebay search of Miller's autograph... I think he might be more concerned about diminishing the value of HIS autograph; signed and authenticated Marvin Miller baseballs are going anywhere between $150 - $300 on Ebay.

So, that being said, I may send a letter thanking him for his time, that way, I can climb off the bitter bus, because, really, it is his choice who to sign for.

I would have liked my pen back, though.....

Unfinished Business

I attempted to do a TTM to Emilio Navarro back in April, only for him to pass away while my ball was on its way from NC to Puerto Rico where Navarro had lived.

I thought getting Navarro would be cool because at the time, he was the oldest foemer professional baseball player at 105 years old. He played in the Negro Leagues, but not in the majors.

I was saddened to hear of Mr. Navarro's passing and figured that I'd never see my ball again. A few weeks passed and one of my mailers appeared in my mailbox. I opened it, thinking that it was going to be one of my HOF TTMs, but instead, a blank ball was inside. I wasn't sure what to make of it, but deduced that it was, in fact, the ball that I had sent to Navarro.

I thought about sending the ball out to someone else for TTM, but my friend Matt posed a different idea.

He said I should leave the ball the way it is. The box wasn't RTS, it was physically opened in Puerto Rico. It looks like Navarro opened the box with the intention to sign the ball, but didn't get to. So, the ball can stand as a symbol of Navarro's unfinished business and I will keep it with the rest of my autographed items. It will always have the story of ALMOST making it there in time for him to sign.

TTM Failure - Vin Scully

I knew it was a long shot, but I sent a ball to Dodger's Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully recently and got this letter back instead. I'm disappointed, but I'm not surprised that I didn't get my ball signed. I imagine that Scully gets more mail than any other announcer in baseball. It would have been nice, but oh well.

I'll probably end up buying an authenticated ball of his at some point, but man, they are EXPENSIVE!

This is only my 4th failure in all of the TTMs I have sent out: Emilio Navarro, Duke Snider, Eddie Joost and Vin Scully. Navarro died as the ball was in the mail and Snider and Joost ended up being in very poor health. Scully is the only one who sent any kind of response. I'll end up sending this ball out for another TTM try, but I'm just not sure yet as to who I'm going to send it to.